For the latest installment on Ponytail Culture Club, Lauren took a look at humanist, theoretical cosmologist, and physicist Sean Carroll's novel called, 'The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself.'

By no means is this a light read, but the beauty of this book is that it continues an important discussion about the great mystery of the Universe. Author Sean Carroll takes us through the prerequisites of understanding how the conversation about the laws of the Universe, and how they have evolved, to give us the rightful tools that every human being deserves.

As Carroll takes us by the hand through fundamental principles of science and philosophy, we start to understand the idea that ‘possibility’ can increase with time. It is then that we start to see a glint of how really difficult questions about the Universe can start to become more soluble. Carroll talks about how we humans exist in the most complex period in the observable Universe since the Big Bang, which is why we are equipped with evolved tools like ‘consciousness’ and ‘choice’ that can have awesome impact on the future.

“Even though we are just tiny specs in the Universe, we ARE in that complex phase, which gives us that ability to think about ourselves, to be self aware... make choices for ourselves on the basis of rational reflection, to create technological marvel that can help us look at ourselves... think about what to do next, rather than just moving from movement to movement. That’s both the world we live in which is true AND it’s a world that we can try to work for, making the best we can which is good.” - Sean Carroll.

Whether you are a critical or creative thinker, this book will give you the gift of curiosity, and encourage you to think about human experience with a better set of vocabulary. You won’t take a way a sinking feeling of hopelessness (by the overwhelming vastness of space and time) but a beautiful sense of purpose that goes above and beyond a way of talking about what happens in the physical world. That is the greatest gift I have received from a book to this day, and I believe it can help us to create and explore with a new set of eyes.

Get your mits on this book digitally via iBooks or on paperback via Amazon.