The Info Mesa: Science, Business, and New Age Alchemy on the Santa Fe Plateau

by Ed Regis

The explosive rise and shining future of Santa Fe's informatics industry, where scientists are converting abstract theory into real profit. How did a small southwest town transform itself into a hotbed of research science, advanced technology, and money? Tracking key figures in Santa Fe's emerging industries, Ed Regis explains how entrepreneurial scientists are using complexity theory and powerful, experimental computer programs to create practical―and profitable―applications. Their efforts to convert vast, diverse data, whether chemical or biological or computational, into useful information is leading to new drugs and medical therapies, ultimately revolutionizing our understanding of effective business strategies. With cutting-edge technology, companies are able to test chemicals, drugs, and interactions virtually before committing huge laboratory investments.

Genres: Science

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Ed Regis holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from New York University and taught for many years at Howard University. He is now a full-time science writer, contributing to Scientific American, Harper's Magazine, Wired, Discover, and The New York Times, among other periodicals.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My motivation for reading this book is a personal connection, as I'm working with at least one of the companies biographied in the book. Given that the book was first published in 2003...there has been a lot of development in the field of computational chemistry between now and then. Despite that, I think it's still a worthy read. Ed Regis seems to follow the Gonzo journalism style of Tom Wolfe. He does an excellent job of describing the human motivations of the cast of characters involved, making it a much more fun read than a dry history of events. The book covers everything from the Mahattan Project, the creation of the Sante Fe Institute, and the startups and spinouts created out of SFI. The author illustrates how the unique expertise in computational chemistry and complexity science, nucleated at Los Alamos, was taken out of the lab and into industry. He also draws parallels between Silicon Valley and the Info Mesa, most notably the role of government research dollars and public-private partnerships.

It is a one-and-done type of book, so while I'm not going to be going back to it again, I'm glad I invested the time finishing it (and it's a fairly short read already). But it is still hard to recommend to a general audience unless one has some connection to the field of simulation software or the Santa Fe region itself.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"'This computation will require more multiplications than have ever been done before by all of humanity.'" (quoting Von Neumann on the thermonuclear bomb, 36)

"What he [Stu Kaufmann] discovered was that once a system of molecules, catalysts, and chemicals combinations reached a minimum threshold of size and complexity, then autocatalytic reactions indeed began to occur. Given enough chemicals, heat, and time, a primitive metabolism was almost certain to arise. Life was not only probable, but almost guaranteed." (71)

"If there was a statutory-defining characteristic of a chaotic system, it was captured by the phrase sensitive dependence on initial conditions." (89)

"'quark-barrel'" (quoting representative Don Ritter on the SSC, 189)