Murray Gell-Mann, 1929-2019
May 24, 2019 3:20 PM   Subscribe

The great theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann passed away today at the age of 89, after a lifetime of contributions from fundamental particle physics to complex systems theory. NYT obit; Caltech obit

Gell-Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1969 (as the sole awardee) for "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions," including Eightfold Way and postulating (and naming!) the existence of quarks. In 1984 he co-founded the Santa Fe Institute, an institute devoted to the study of complex systems, with the goal of rigorously investigating the chain of relationships that connect the fundamental laws of physics to "the rich fabric of the world that we perceive directly and of which we are a part."

You can hear Murray Gell-Mann recollect his life in his own words:
posted by Westringia F. (26 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
An amazing career. His contributions will long outlive him.
posted by biogeo at 3:22 PM on May 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


I forgot to add: (Less notably, this video of SFI's Murray Gell-Mann Building Dedication Ceremony [2015] features him at the beginning & end, and others talking about him in-between.)
posted by Westringia F. at 3:34 PM on May 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


I still remember as a kid reading in his book about him giving a prof 20 different solutions for a problem (How can you find the height of a building using a thermometer?) without giving the answer he knew the prof wanted, and then arguing like mad that his 20 were all valid (my favourite: "I would find the building manager and say "Hey, I have a really nice thermometer, it's yours if you tell me how tall this building is").

RIP

#charm
posted by Cosine at 3:42 PM on May 24, 2019 [9 favorites]


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I thought this video, of the problems he had with Feynman, quite clearly showed how human factors can be a determinant in professional relationships.
posted by cowcowgrasstree at 3:52 PM on May 24, 2019 [7 favorites]


Co-founder of the Santa Fe Institute (and resident of Santa Fe, NM).
posted by falsedmitri at 4:14 PM on May 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


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posted by drnick at 4:49 PM on May 24, 2019


How can you find the height of a building using a thermometer?

The version I read had it as Niels Bohr and a barometer
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 4:58 PM on May 24, 2019


The Bohr part is urban legend, but barometer is correct. The story -- and perhaps more importantly, its consequences for ethically testing students -- comes from Alexander Calandra and is quoted in Gell-Mann's 1994 book The Quark and the Jaguar.
posted by Westringia F. at 5:06 PM on May 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


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posted by Kwine at 5:12 PM on May 24, 2019


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posted by doctornemo at 5:26 PM on May 24, 2019


“Three quarks for Muster Mark...”

He knew the sound of the word he wanted to use for the name. Kwork. He also remembered the line in a poem found in Finnegans Wake by Joyce, quoted above. But he was worried that because of the spelling it would be pronounced Kwark. Not the sound he wanted. But like a true Joycean he reasoned that the line could be read as “three quarts for Muster Mark.” An order for drinks in a bar, a very appropriate interpretation given the book. So he had the sound. Kwork. And we got new elementary particles in physics.

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posted by njohnson23 at 7:55 PM on May 24, 2019


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posted by ZeusHumms at 8:11 PM on May 24, 2019


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posted by XMLicious at 11:20 PM on May 24, 2019


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posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 2:22 AM on May 25, 2019


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posted by filtergik at 4:25 AM on May 25, 2019


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posted by the painkiller at 5:02 AM on May 25, 2019


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posted by Foosnark at 5:51 AM on May 25, 2019


Also popularly known (at least to me) as part of the inspiration for the Gell-Mann effect.
posted by ericales at 6:45 AM on May 25, 2019


Damn.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:08 AM on May 25, 2019


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posted by limeonaire at 7:26 AM on May 25, 2019


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posted by Countess Elena at 8:10 AM on May 25, 2019


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posted by Splunge at 9:42 AM on May 25, 2019


He knew the sound of the word he wanted to use for the name. Kwork.

Now wait just a minute. Does it not rhyme with "ark"?
posted by thelonius at 10:10 AM on May 25, 2019


In snippet 116 of the Web of Stories interview, Gell-Mann talks about the naming. It's exactly the same story njohnson23 tells above, but you can hear him speak the pronunciation he had in mind.
posted by Westringia F. at 12:50 PM on May 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


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posted by Songdog at 1:58 PM on May 25, 2019


He hated Feynman with the heat of a thousand suns. When Feynman had a surprise best seller with Surely You're Joking Mister Feynman!, Gell-Mann decided he was going to write one as well. The result, The Quark and the Jaguar, was famously one of those books whose production burned everyone involved to a crisp.
I found it unreadable and I hardly ever drop a book once I've started. SYJMF is unreadable now, I suspect, because of its near cosmic misogyny. QaJ was bad because Gell-Mann simply couldn't write for normal humans. He used to tell people he was writing a book for the peasants.
He was also famous for correcting people's pronunciation of their own names.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 2:50 PM on May 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


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