Providing the answers, or peddling nonsense? (Image: Megan Bearder)

Stephen Wolfram reckons he can model the entire universe using tiny computer programs. But despite being the creator of a “search engine” that provides answers, he still has to convince his peers that he’s on the right track, as David Cohen discovers

IT WAS the summer of 2002 when Stephen Wolfram received an “incredibly emotional” phone call. “You are destroying the heritage of mathematics that has been built up since Greek times,” said the flustered caller. Wolfram listened with a mixture of dismay and bemusement, then shot back that, on the …