Jim Al-Khalili tackles the greatest question in science - how the universe began. By recreating key experiments Jim unravels the mystery of science's creation story.

Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, though a sadistic killer from her past has different plans for her and her friends.

Publishing assistant Brett Eisenberg wants to be a big-time editor. However, she lacks self-confidence, a problem that isn't helped by her new, overbearing boss. Brett soon enters into a relationship with Archie, an older man who has plenty of his own issues, including alcoholism, diabetes and a difficult relationship with his daughter. Intent on helping Archie get past his problems, she turns to her dying father for advice.

The family man farmer John Rollins is stressed with his financial situation: the crows and the lack of irrigation are destroying his crop of corn; the bank is near closure of his mortgage; he does not have credit to fix the water pump or to buy seeds; and his marriage is in crisis and his wife Mary is giving too much attention to her friend Tommy. When John accidentally discovers a hidden compartment in the barn, he finds a creepy scarecrow but his son Michael makes him promise to destroy it. However, his neighbor Jude Weatherby visits him, gives a six-pack of beer to the abstemious John and convinces him to put the scarecrow in the cornfield. Out of the blue, the life of John changes: the crows die; the pump works again irrigating the land; and the banker responsible for the closure has an accident and dies. However, he feels that his land is possessed by something evil that is threatening his beloved family.

In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighbourhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?

When an extraordinary man who has lived through all is approaching his end, he decides to call his son to join him for the last time at his home in Tuscany. His intention is to share some valuable conversations about his life as a press correspondent in Southeast Asia, about the political and social changes which he has seen, and about the spiritual transformation he has experienced in recent years. But for him the most important is to show his son how he is preparing for the last great adventure of a lifetime.

On June 26, 1813, Austrian Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich went to meet Napoleon Bonaparte at his headquarters in Dresden, in the Kingdom of Saxony. Although the French emperor still dominated Europe, the disastrous Russian campaign had sapped his military power. Could France continue to count on Austria's support? A nine-hour private meeting would decide the fate of Europe.