Adventures in the Simple and the Complex

2009 Ulam Lecture Series: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex - A Tribute to Murray Gell-Mann. Three lectures honor the lifelong work of Murray Gell-Mann, one of the founders of SFI and currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute. Among Gell-Mann’s contributions to physics was the “eightfold way” scheme that brought order out of the chaos created by the discovery of some 100 kinds of particles in collisions involving atomic nuclei. In 1969, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann’s current interests extend to historical linguistics, archaeology, natural history, the psychology of creative thinking, and other subjects connected with biological and cultural evolution and with learning. He is now spearheading the Evolution of Human Languages program at SFI.