The Quark & the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple & the Complex

The book is in amazingly good condition with all of the original components including the jacket. The delivery was quick with no damage. The price was very fair for the quality of the book.

I bought this for a friend; read it when it first came out. Gell-Mann's thinking and writing are able to engage the full awe of the wonders of the world that is first rate science. When you watch a great athlete, you can get the feeling that you can duplicate the feat. Reading this book makes you think that you can have the kind of mind that a great scientist has. Of course, one can't be a great athlete or a Nobel worthy scientist, but this book made me feel that those things are within reach.

The book was received in good condition and within the expected delivery schedule.I am pleased with the book, though I haven't had time to read much of it, as yet, I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of Mr. Gell-Mann's writing - he writes very well and what I have read so far has been interesting and compelling to get back to the book and read more...I ordered the book because I watched a video of the author giving a TED Talk, which inspired interest in seeing what else he has to say along the lines he explored in the talk.

I was very disappointed with the print quality produced by the Print On Demand (POD) technology employed by Amazon. There was no warning by Amazon that I was purchasing a POD paperback book. The author's content in the book is great but the quality of the printed text as delivered is poor. Lower case letters: i's with no dots, t and f with no cross and much worse as some whole lines of text have the upper half blank so I have to read in "context" of the proceeding paragraphs to make corrections as I read. At least half the book suffers from poor print quality. It has a printed label "Made in the USA Middletown DE 25 February 2017" on the last page. This is also the date I submitted my order.Amazon, Amazon, Amazon...... very sad.

Very good condition. No markings.

Gell-Mann's  The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex  is a fascinating book. Included is the best (simple) explanation of quarks and sub-atomic particle physics that I have ever read. If you are interested in understand quarks (and the field of quantum mechanics and superstrings), you should read this book by the Nobel Laureate who discovered (and named) them.But the book has a lot more to it. There are chapters on evolution, language acquisition, science, time, superstition, and complex adaptive systems. The author is opinionated and fun to read.

"The Quark and the Jaguar" is Nobel laureate Maurray Gell-Mann's exploration of the relationship between the basic laws of physics and complex adaptive systems. As one of the discoverers of the quark, a basic sub atomic particle, Gell-Mann extrapolates from the basic laws governing all matter to the evolution of complex systems and the evolution of individuality, adaptability, and the interactive complexities of entire ecosystems. Along the way, he also illustrates his point by exploring how children learn language. As someone intrigued by chaos theory but who can only understand complex mathematics verbally, I'm always on the look out for books that I don't need advanced calculus to understand. The books definitely satisfies "my Jones."

If, like me, one does not fully comprehend the details of the author's work in quantum mechanics, that does not really stand in the way of enjoying this book as an ode to learning and the spirit of discovery. Not always a natural or fluid narrator, but Mr Gell-mann's enthusiasm and passion for the wonders of the world's workings carries the book along briskly enough.

I knew of this book from Gell-Mann's interviews available on youtube (the 1990 interview and the Web of Stories interview) which I found entertaining and insightful so I read this book but I found it boring (the worst crime for a book). I have an issue with the objective of the book which was to NOT go into the details of any particular subject. As a result, for any subject he talks about, something better has been written, to name something the first three parts:- on Zipf's law and scale independence (part I), Scale by G. West is infinitely better.- on the renormalizability of the standard model (partII), his WebOfStories interview details it more and overall Mandelbrot does a better job at explaining it- On 'Selection and Fitness' (part III), the works of Hardin are fascinating (and entertaining!) reads(I was so bored that I skimmed through part 4 so I won't comment on it)Part I and II were relatively the better part of the book but overall the whole book is just a stack of high-level summaries across various subjects, none of them enough to give any real insight but sometimes just enough to spark curiosity (and then leaves you hanging). Part II on 'The Quantum Universe' was the most interesting part of the book. If you're interested in Gell-Mann talking about physics, watch the WebOfStories interview on youtube, much more entertaining!On the quality of the paperback edition: terrible! None of the graphs are visibles (the background color is black, so anything drawn on the graph is almost entirely invisible). The cover of the book already started deteriorating (after only one read) such as the color-printed plastic sheet covering the book starts to come off.

If you're a layman like me, buy this book. Don't listen to the pompous, negative-sounding reviews above/below. Complexity, Information Theory, Financial Markets - this one book alone explains in language you can understand concepts of pseudo-randomness that illuminate all these topics and more. Its a delight to read. Having read a lot on Information Theory and Complexity, this book is simply a marvel in making it all just that bit clearer, and if you haven't read anything on these subjects, start with this one.

I have read this book before, on a previous edition, and love the contents. However, this edition seems like a very poor copy or reprint of the previous one, made with a look quality printer. The figures, which in previous editions were perfectly fine, are now totally illegible. I can't recommend this edition

The book itself has a sturdy construction, the printed characters have some small distortions but nothing affecting the reading.The subject of the book is simply amazing and wonderful. This is a book for a general public. The way the author writes is charming and delightful.5 stars. Very recommended

I've had this book on my bedside table ever since I bought it. Gell-Mann is a world renowned physicist who never seems to get the credit (from layman) in the same way as other more famous physicists. That being said, I don't know of any other physicist who is so accessible. Feynman shines at explaining the simple, in writing, but struggles when he has to talk. Gell-Mann is brilliant at both public lectures and written discourse. This book is wide ranging and wonderful in it's scope and insight. It is highly recommended.