It sometimes seems to rule our lives and yet some scientists think it is an illusion.

From birth to death we seem to be swept up in a relentless and inescapable journey through time, but what is this strange place we call the present moment?

Why does the past seem fixed and the future so uncertain.

Was the universe born into time or did time arise with the universe?

Will time continue forever or will it fade like the stars?

These are some of the questions that were discussed at a recent conference in Bergen and Copenhagen and on a ship between the two.

In Discovery this week, science writer Zeeya Merali joins some of the leading physicists and cosmologists discussing the nature of time and its place in our lives and the Universe.

Producer: Martin Redfern