The Widening World View -- When Science Was Born -- Science in Athens -- Planetary Spheres and the Size of the Universe -- Medieval Cosmology -- The Roots of the Copernican Revolution -- The True Laws of Planetary Motion Revealed -- Galileo Galilei and His Successors -- How Far Away Are the Stars? -- The Scale of the Solar System -- Physical Laws of Nature -- Newton -- Celestial Mechanics -- Nature of Light -- Electricity and Magnetism -- Time and Space -- Curved Space and Gravity -- Atoms and Nuclei -- Strange Microworld -- Elementary Particles -- The Universe -- Stars: Cosmic Fusion Reactors -- The Riddle of the Milky Way -- Entering the Galaxy Universe -- Large-scale Structure of the Universe -- Finite or Infinite Universe: Cosmological Models -- When it all Began: Big Bang -- The Dark Side of the Universe -- Active Galaxies: Messages Through Radio Waves -- Origin of Galaxies -- Life in the Universe -- The Nature of Life -- The Origin of Earth and its Moon -- Emergence and Evolution of Life -- Life and our Solar System -- Extrasolar Planetary Systems and Life in other Solar Systems -- Human's Role in the Universe.