The Quark and the Jaguar

So, I took a series of physics classes this past year which culminated in a summer class about modern physics.  As part of the class, I had to do a project on a fundamental constant like the speed of light of Avogadro's number or a new concept in physics like the God particle, dark matter, or quarks.  I decided to do the project on quarks which meant learning just what quarks are, how they work, and who discovered them.  The first thing I learned was that two people came up with the idea that quarks exist: Murray Gell-Mann... and some other guy who's name I don't remember.

Either way, I went straight to the public library when I decided on my project topic, determined to get down and absorb some knowledge through reading.  I found one book that I liked....

ONE book.

But it was a hell of a book!

I just finished it recently and OH MY GOD!  Murray Gell-Mann, the author, namer and one of the two discoverers of quarks, is a really fascinating guy with a mind-set that was really fascinating in 1994.  I don't know if his mind still works the way I felt it did in the book.  He's interested and knowledgeable about many different fields of study, not just the particle physics where he gets his money.  His big pt project, as displayed in the book, was the study of complex adaptive systems through the Santa Fe Institute.

A complex adaptive system is really simple to explain.  It is a system that learns through schema and thought.  A human being can be considered a complex adaptive system.  However, so can an entire biosphere, a country, biological evolution, certain computers, modern economics, and many, many more things.

They call me an "otter cat". :(

Murray Gell-Mann has devoted the remainder of his life, however long or short it may be, to the study of complex adaptive systems in the hopes of finding a greater sustainability for the human race and the planet as a whole.  I knew from his biography blurb in the jacket that he was into conservationism.  I knew from his introduction that he has gone through walks in jungles and come face-to-face with, not a jaguar, but a jaguarundi.  He's listened to bird calls and he loves the world.

Or... at least, that's the way he sounded in the book.  For all I know, he's secretly exactly like Orson Scott Card.  But I doubt it, because this isn't fiction, kids.

The book has opened my mind to so many ideas and possibilities for the world and, if you have a passing interest in physics, evolution, complex adaptive systems, or you're just curious about the things a physicist would be interested in publishing in a book, you should read this one.

Sweet Dreams!