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The Big Picture
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  • Published: 10 May 2016
  • ISBN: 9780399565076
  • Imprint: RH US Audio Adult
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $23.00

The Big Picture

On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself

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*An instant New York Times Bestseller*
*Publishers Weekly #1 Most Anticipated Science Book of Spring 2016*
"You will be enthralled." — Wall Street Journal
"A tour de force." — Salon.com

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? Does 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.

*Includes a Bonus PDF with charts and images.
  • Published: 10 May 2016
  • ISBN: 9780399565076
  • Imprint: RH US Audio Adult
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $23.00
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About the author

Sean Carroll


Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, and Fractal Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is host of the Mindscape podcast, and author of From Eternity to Here, The Particle at the End of the Universe, The Big Picture, and Something Deeply Hidden. He has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the American Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of London, and many others. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette.

portrait photo of Sean Carroll

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Praise for The Big Picture

Praise for Sean Carroll:

  • "Carroll is a sure-footed guide through some of the most perplexing and fascinating insights of modern physics." - Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe

  • "[Carroll's] writing is accessible and peppered with cultural references... but don't be fooled. Carroll isn't afraid to wade into topics that have befuddled even brand-name physicists." - Wired

  • "Carroll keeps it real, getting at the complex guts of cutting-edge cosmology in discussions that will challenge fans of Hawking's A Brief History of Time." - The Washington Post