The May 27 issue of BusinessWeek Magazine carries an article about the new book by Stephen Wolfram, A New Kind of Science.
You might not know Stephen Wolfram, so let's go for some details. Born in London in 1959, he published his first academic works when he was 16. And he earned a PhD in physics from California Institute of Technology at age 20. He started his software company in 1981 and there are over a million users of Mathematica today.
Many people thought he lost interest for fundamental science. On the contrary, he worked alone for a dozen years and his new book has been released on May 14. It's a heavy book, with 1,280 pages and a (list) price tag of $44.95.
You understand I don't have that many pages to tell you about his book. So here is a liitle quotation from the BusinessWeek article.
Wolfram posits that virtually everything -- the patterns on seashells, the ticks of financial markets, even the universe itself -- is the result of instructions as simple as an eight-step software program. Unearthing all these rules, he declares, could lead to a new scientific renaissance. Biologists, for instance, could pinpoint the code governing the complex shapes and folding patterns of proteins.
Within a generation or two, Wolfram predicts, his new kind of science will be taught in schools along with chemistry and math. He says his theory may even supplant today's physics; because it doesn't require calculus, it will attract smart researchers who don't want to learn advanced math. Wolfram also foresees a day, perhaps in his lifetime, when his name will be enshrined alongside those of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein.
BusinessWeek Online posted two bonus articles about this book:
Wolfram: "I Like to Figure Stuff Out"
The author of A New Kind of Science explains what drives him to explore topics usually thought to be complex beyond understanding.
Kurzweil on Wolfram
The noted scientist finds plenty to mull and admire in A New Kind of Science but says it's "only partly correct".
You can read the full article from Raymond C. Kurzweil here.
Additionally, if you read some french, Le Monde published two stories on this great book in its issue dated May 15:
Stephen Wolfram propose de revisiter les lois de l'Univers
Les scientifiques partagés entre curiosité et scepticisme
Sources: Michael Arndt, BusinessWeek Online, May 17, 2002; Hervé Morin, Le Monde dated May 15, 2002
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