The Big Picture - Sean Carroll

The Big Picture

By Sean Carroll

  • Release Date: 2016-05-10
  • Genre: Physics
4 Score: 4 (From 84 Ratings)

Description

The instant New York Times bestseller about humanity's place in the universe—and how we understand it.

“Vivid...impressive....Splendidly informative.â€â€”The New York Times
“Succeeds spectacularly.â€â€”Science
“
A tour de force.â€â€”Salon

Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on Higgs bosons and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions: Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void? Do human purpose and meaning fit into a scientific worldview?

In short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level—and then how each connects to the other. Carroll's presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique.  

Carroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.

The Big Picture is an unprecedented scientific worldview, a tour de force that will sit on shelves alongside the works of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, and E. O. Wilson for years to come.

Reviews

  • Serendipitous fortuity

    5
    By GoldieL0C
    A random to two star rating lead me hear. As a fan of Sean I simply couldn’t sit back letting a false review exist in this universe. Giving a 5 for now as I plan to start reading it. I’ll change it if necessary but I doubt it.
  • Terrible

    1
    By nomagician
    Author is so patronizing in his assumption that all readers are absolute morons I had to listen to the Audibook at 2x speed. Even at such speeds, the tone of the author, which is that of a grown up speaking to a child, along with its slowly developed written counterparts, makes this book and what small intellectual gems it might hold unbearable to pursue for anyone that is scientifically literate. Because of this, as I'm sure Caroll is aware, the book has sold exceedingly well. Hooray for science.
  • Exceptionally elegant and easy to understand

    5
    By Artie_D
    I want to thank Sean for a book that has such really great combination of an information rich and simplicity. Even Leonard Susskind lectures are less comprehensive than this book - WELL DONEðŸ‘ðŸ»ðŸ˜Ž
  • Poetic Naturalism

    5
    By Dlevymd
    Loved it!

Comments