[@Aisling] "There probably were more big bangs," Ioan answered. "Just not inside our universe. - Everything that we know is inside this universe. Space, matter, living creatures, energy, even time. And this universe had its beginnings with the big bang. Nobody knows what was before that, and there is no way of finding that out.
Our universe probably isn't infinite, which means that there are things outside the universe. Parallel universes probably, and all of them began at their own big bangs.
But the big bang - I mean, 'our' big bang - didn't directly create life. That happened much, much later. The big bang just gave the basics for life, so to say.
A short time after the big bang, there was nothing but hot plasma. This plasma became the first atoms, helium and hydrogen atoms. Those atoms formed more complex structures, like stars. All the other elements were created inside those stars and were set free in supernovae. - A supernova is the end of a star that has a certain mass."