
Then he seemed to turn his back on that field.

After laying the groundwork for a brilliant career in particle physics, he'd suddenly switched to the untraditional pursuit of studying complex systems, and, to the establishment's dismay, dared to pioneer the use of computers as a primary research tool. He'd been a child genius, and at 21 had been the youngest member of the storied first class of MacArthur genius awards.

A series of much-discussed reinventions made him sort of the Bob Dylan of physics. Though physically unimposing with a soft, round face and a droll English accent polished at Eton and Oxford, Wolfram had already established himself as a larger-than-life figure in the gossipy world of science.

Word had been out that Stephen Wolfram, the onetime enfant terrible of the science world, was working on a book that would Say It All, a paradigm-busting tome that would not only be the definitive account on complexity theory but also the opening gambit in a new way to view the universe. The inside story of how Stephen Wolfram went from boy genius to recluse to science renegade.
