Reviews
"A stimulating, provocative, and uncommon cut across compartments of human knowledge that are usually hermetically sealed."-Carl Sagan "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 grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured complex adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking."- Science "A book every bit as interesting as its author. Gell-Mann weaves together such seemingly disparate elements as chimpanzee behavior, avalanche mechanics, superstring theory, and Shakespeare. Extraordinary!"-Mark J. Plotkin, author of Tales of a Shaman Apprentice "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 " The Quark and the Jaguar emerges as a work of considerable felicity. It can be read by anyone with an interest in science, and it has a clarity and integrity that can only be produced by sustained effort."- The New York Review of Books "A most important book."- The Washington Post "A wide- ranging book, reflecting a mind that has never ceased to be curious and that has been able to indulge that curiosity through travel and contact with experts from diverse fields. Thus, the book opens with a description of his close encounter with a jaguarundi-a wild cat-in the Guatemalan rain forest surrounding the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The moment was something of an epiphany: Gell-Mann perceived that out of the simple and uniform emerge the complex and individual-the organism or system with a history, able to interact with the environment. The book plays out this theme in chapters that move from quarks and superstring theory to biological evolution, language development, culture, consciousness, creativity, and the present world ecological dilemmas. Along the way, the author offers introductions to theoretical constructs like measures of complexity, randomness, and depth; and he gives discourses on entropy and the arrow of time. All in all, this is a wonderfully heady experience. It is not particle physics made easy; it is an insight into the mind of an idealist and theorist-and polymath-whose company is a pleasure to share."- Kirkus Reviews "A grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured complex adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking."- Science, "A stimulating, provocative, and uncommon cut across compartments of human knowledge that are usually hermetically sealed."-Carl Sagan "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 grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured complex adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking."-Science "A book every bit as interesting as its author. Gell-Mann weaves together such seemingly disparate elements as chimpanzee behavior, avalanche mechanics, superstring theory, and Shakespeare. Extraordinary!"-Mark J. Plotkin, author of Tales of a Shaman Apprentice "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 "The Quark and the Jaguar emerges as a work of considerable felicity. It can be read by anyone with an interest in science, and it has a clarity and integrity that can only be produced by sustained effort."-The New York Review of Books "A most important book."-The Washington Post "A wide- ranging book, reflecting a mind that has never ceased to be curious and that has been able to indulge that curiosity through travel and contact with experts from diverse fields. Thus, the book opens with a description of his close encounter with a jaguarundi-a wild cat-in the Guatemalan rain forest surrounding the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The moment was something of an epiphany: Gell-Mann perceived that out of the simple and uniform emerge the complex and individual-the organism or system with a history, able to interact with the environment. The book plays out this theme in chapters that move from quarks and superstring theory to biological evolution, language development, culture, consciousness, creativity, and the present world ecological dilemmas. Along the way, the author offers introductions to theoretical constructs like measures of complexity, randomness, and depth; and he gives discourses on entropy and the arrow of time. All in all, this is a wonderfully heady experience. It is not particle physics made easy; it is an insight into the mind of an idealist and theorist-and polymath-whose company is a pleasure to share."-Kirkus Reviews "A grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured complex adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking."-Science
