Talk:Murray Gell-Mann

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Contents 1 A recent (high school) philosophy class 2 Boston University 3 That which is not forbidden is mandatory 4 Naming quarks 5 Infobox Discussion 6 Tone? 7 Seeger and Alain Aspect 8 Handedness? 9 Atheist? 10 WikiProject class rating

[edit] A recent (high school) philosophy class

I studied Murray Gell-Mann in a recent (high school) philosophy class. Our text was a series of interviews conducted by Bill Moyers. I don't see any mention of that here, nor do I see any reference to his "basins of attraction" idea. Any possibility of expansion on Gell-Mann's article? --Writingrights 20:51, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

You're going to have to be a lot less vague. Gell-Mann certainly didn't invent the notion of a "basin of attraction". What do you think he did with it? -- Xerxes 05:18, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Boston University

According to the Boston University faculty page, Gell-Mann is or was at one time on the staff there. However, I see no reference to that in this article.

Although Gell-Mann has been on staff at a large number of universities, the BU page appears to be in error. See, for example Gell-Mann's CV at Santa Fe. -- Xerxes 16:43, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] That which is not forbidden is mandatory

One of my favorite quotes, attributed to Gell-Mann, is a phrase to the effect that, "That which is not forbidden is mandatory."

Does anyone know if it is correctly attributed to Gell-Mann? If so, what did he actually say. And if so, what is the reference?

Thanks - Williamborg 19:01, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Naming quarks

The Finnegans Wake page says not from there. Any citation one way or the other ? -- Beardo 13:31, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

w/r/t the naming of quarks, the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark" comes at the beginning of book 2, episode 4 of Finnegans Wake. However, in a private letter from 1978, cited by the OED for the etymology of quark, Gell-Mann writes:

"In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork." Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark."

In my opinion, this is a case of coincidental creation. If you browse Finnegans Wake long enough, you'll probably come across a string that matches whatever funny sounds are bouncing around in your head.

[edit] Infobox Discussion

An infobox was removed from the Gell-Mann page. Please discuss reasons for retaining or removal in order to acheive consensus. Here is what it looked like for your reference:

Murray Gell-Mann
Murray Gell-Mann at Harvard University
Born	September 15, 1929 Manhattan Island, New York City, USA
Residence	USA
Nationality	US
Fields	Physicist
Institutions	Santa Fe Institute, California Institute of Technology
Alma mater	Yale University, MIT
Doctoral advisor	Victor Weisskopf
Doctoral students	<please insert>
Known for	Elementary particles
Notable awards	Dannie Heineman Prize (1959), Ernest O. Lawrence Award (1966), Franklin Medal (1967), John J. Carty Medal (1968), Nobel Prize (1969), Erice Prize (1990)

bunix 23:23, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Over a week has passed by and there have been no dissenting voices. Therefore I am now replacing this infobox. In future, please discuss here first before removal of larges chunks of information. This is wiki policy. bunix 00:02, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tone?

From the article:

Propelled by an intense boyhood curiosity and love for nature, he entered Yale [...] By age twenty-three he had ignited a revolution, laying bare in his groundbreaking work the strange beauty of the minute particles that make up reality.

I am sure this is true (I know Gell-Mann is a great man), but it doesn't sound very encyclopedic... -- 131.111.8.99 22:05, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

• To clarify: "intense curiosity", "ignited a revolution", "laying bare in his groundbreaking work [etc.]" – isn't that just so many peacock terms? And "minute particles that make up reality" – why can't one just say "elementary particles"? -- 131.111.8.99 22:10, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Seeger and Alain Aspect

Is it true that, in his book "the Quark and the Jaguar" Murray Gell-Mann "settles his account" with singer Pete Seeger and mention the experiment of Alain Aspect without naming him ?

[edit] Handedness?

The trivia section states that Gell-Mann is lefthanded but in the only pictures I can find of him writing he is using his right hand. What is the source for the lefthandedness claim? --85.197.229.167 19:08, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Atheist?

Does anybody happen to know for certain whether Gell-Mann is an atheist? Everything I know about him points to that conclusion, but I haven't seen anything definitive. Cgingold 02:21, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 10:00, 10 November 2007 (UTC)