Episode Details

Murray Gell-Mann predicted the existence of quarks and reorganized particle physics with the Eightfold Way, winning the Nobel Prize for his work on elementary particles. Outside the lab, he pursued linguistics, archaeology, and complexity theory, while his personal life intersected with financial scandals that tarnished his public image.

This episode traces the career of one of the most brilliant and abrasive minds in 20th-century physics.

• The Eightfold Way and how it organized the subatomic zoo
• His prediction of quarks and the name he borrowed from James Joyce
• The founding of the Santa Fe Institute and his pursuit of complexity
• The financial controversies that complicated his later years