How did our universe develop?

What will it become?

And why should we care?

We are a miniscule part of an incredible continuum: a chain of events spanning 13.8 billion years, with an infinite future. But what does that future hold? And where do we fit in?

The Universe In a Box is Andrew Pontzen’s tribute to simulation - the remarkable blend of technology, risk and genius that, over the last century, has allowed us to predict how the universe will develop. It challenges everything we think we know about galaxies, black holes, matter and weather. And it reveals the pioneer scientists who unlocked mysteries of space, from redshift to improbable dark materials that pass, ghost-like, through solid rock. Illuminating, provocative and bold, this is the story of the codes that allow us to look up, to learn, and to discover our place in the cosmos.