Researchers need enormous computer power to forecast changes in the Earth's climate, but they can predict the speed of a ball rolling down a ramp with pencil and paper. Stephen Wolfram claimed in his 2002 best seller, A New Kind of Science, that there is a clear dividing line between complex problems that require computer crunching and those for which equations alone will do. He argued that many important problems are more like the climate than the ball. But according to the 20 February PRL, his definition of complexity is imperfect because many of the problems he classified as complex are easily solved, as long as you can accept approximate answers. The results suggest that the traditional approach of physics--the equivalent of pencil and paper--is more widely applicable than Wolfram's analysis implies.

A New Kind of Science
Copyright 2002
By Stephen Wolfram
A New Kind of Science, raised expectations that some great new understanding was about to be shared with the world, but now here it is, and many are disappointed. It's an impressive work, with roughly a thousand high quality images, but the author's incredible ego, and overly wordy style get in the way of readability. Written during ten years in isolation and without feedback from the scientific community, the book suffers from lack of acknowledgement of the work of others, and questionable accuracy in some areas.