The Quark and the Jaguar - by Murray Gell-Mann (Paperback)

About the Book

What does a quark inside an atom have to do with a jaguar circling his jungle territory? What can the study of particle physics add to our understanding of natural selection, linguistics, child development, economics, and computers? Find out with Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann's personal account of his search for the connections between the universe's fundamental laws and nature at its most complex. 40 illustrations.

Book Synopsis

From one of the architects of the new science of simplicity and complexity comes an explanation of the connections between nature at its most basic level and natural selection, archaeology, linguistics, child development, computers, and other complex adaptive systems. Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann offers a uniquely personal and unifying vision of the relationship between the fundamental laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world.

Review Quotes

"An exhilarating voyage of learning. Not a sparrow takes wing, not an idea rises, not a quark quivers that does not inspire Murray Gell-Mann. He has made his life an adventuresome quest along the frontiers of knowledge." --Bill Moyers

"A stimulating, provocative, and uncommon cut across compartments of human knowledge that are usually hermetically sealed. It is always a pleasure to see a first-class mind grappling with the greatest mysteries, and at the same time resisting mysticism." --Carl Sagan

"A grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking." --Science

"A most important book." --The Washington Post

"A book about how the wonderful diversity of the universe can arise out of a set of fairly simple basic laws. It is written by an expert in both the fundamental laws and the complex structures they can produce." --Stephen W. Hawking

About the Author

Murray Gell-Mann, the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor Emeritus of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics. In 1984, he helped establish the Santa Fe Institute, where he now works. A longtime director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Professor Gell-Man served as chairman of its Committee on World Environment and Resources.