Customer Reviews

Chaos: Making a New Science

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I first picked up Gleick's "Chaos" I was a little skeptical - could a book written in 1987 still work as an introduction to chaos and nonlinear dynamics, a field that has been evolving rapidly for the past eighteen years? Well, in a certain sense, it turns out it can.

The truth is that the focus of Gleick's book is not so much chaos itself as it is the people who first explored chaos theory and eventually managed to make it respectable and bring it into the mainstream. As the book's subtitle hints, Gleick is concerned mainly with how a 'new science' is 'made', not necessarily with the actual science or math involved. This was not quite what I was expecting from "Chaos", but it is actually an advantage for the book, since its age becomes somewhat irrelevant: although chaos theory itself has been growing and evolving dramatically in recent decades, "Chaos" deals only with its roots in the '60s, '70s and early '80s. On the other hand, I was hoping for more discussion of the science itself, rather than the personalities involved in its early development.

I was also not that taken with the style of Gleick's writing. His narrative tends to jump around rapidly, often spending only a few pages on some person or event before moving on to another, commonly with little in the way of connection or logical transition. This is fine for short articles in newspapers and magazines, but it doesn't work so well in a 300+ page book. The vast cast of characters (meteorologists, physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, biologists, ecologists and many others) spins in and out of view, and it can be very difficult to get more than a general impression how the little pieces all fit together in the big picture.

However, even though I'm complaining about the content and presentation, I'm still giving "Chaos" four stars. This is because "Chaos" managed to get me interested in and excited about nonlinear dynamics. Gleick was able to convey the sense of wonder and excitement that comes from looking at nature in a new way, through the lens of nonlinearity. He successfully presented the making of this new science as the greatest and most exciting scientific revolution since the development of quantum mechanics - with the difference that chaos is more accessible, more understandable, and applicable in a far wider range of fields.

In short, "Chaos" still achieves its goal 18 years after it was written. It gets the reader (this reader, at least) interested in and excited about nonlinear dynamics and eager to explore the topic in greater depth. Reading Gleick's book inspired me to pick up a copy of Robert Hilborn's "Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics" from the library and take a more serious look at the science itself. "Chaos" should make a good read for anyone who knows little or nothing about chaos or nonlinear dynamics but is curious about the topic and interested in learning a bit about its early development.

Have you ever wondered why a leaf or tree is shaped the way it is? Can science explain the seemingly randomness of nature? This book will make your imagination run wild. Pure science meets Mother Nature. I would read from this book each night before I went to bed and then just dream about the possibilities. This is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read. I grab this book off the shelf at least once a month and just thumb through it again to revisit some of the ideas. His explanation and discussions about nonlinear dynamics were very eye opening for me. The author also did a great job of providing a brief background of each scientific breakthrough along the way. This provided allot of additional and interesting facts that directly contributed to ones understanding.

You don't have to be a genius to comprehend and enjoy this book. Some of the reviews for this book complain about there not being enough math to support the theory. The lack of advanced math made this book even more enjoyable for me. The average person will appreciate this book just as much as anyone else.

This book also has some very nice full color illustrations. Nothing was spared for this book. You won't be disappointed.

Gleick's "Chaos" will change the way you look at the world. Not once, not twice, but three times, I found myself, jaw agape, staring through the text into infinity and pondering the immensity of what I had just read. This is as much a testament to Gleick's powerful prose as it is to the profound implications of chaos theory.

Gleick accomplishes an impressive feat in his chronicle of chaos' brief history. He skillfully interweaves the characters, their ideas, and the interactions among characters and ideas into a seamless story so as to give the reader an accurate sense of how chaos theory evolved over the course of a couple of decades.

While "Chaos" does not delve into the mathematics, it provides enough detail for readers with technical backgrounds to make the appropriate connections and develop a more complete understanding of chaos. Gleick also provides a thorough list of endnotes for additional reading.

Enjoy. This book will both entertain and astound you.

This book has been on my "to read" list for several years, so I looked forward to getting to read it. While it is written in an entertaining style, I cannot whole-heartedly recommend it. This is more a book about the people who made contributions to chaos theory (non-linear dynamics and Fractals) than a coherent presentation of these theories. This is not the book to get if you want to understand Chaos theories, as it has less depth than the average Scientific American article. After reading it, I got a general feeling for the subject, but it was something that I had to piece together from the narrative.

As an analogy, it is as if a book on the Battle of Gettysburg consisted of biographical sketches of two-dozen of the participants, each detailing their contributions, but without an overview of the battle as a whole. You would learn about the people who fought there and from the descriptions of their individual contributions, you could piece together an idea of the battle. A good historian takes this type of information and uses it to create a coherent picture. I expect the same from a science writer.

The book contains some illustrations of chaotic systems and fractals, but in my opinion not enough. There are only a few mathematical equations; again in my opinion this could have been beefed up (at least in an appendix). I came away with a feeling that Chaos theory is very important and has many applications in different fields of science, but I knew this already, which is why I read the book. I would have preferred more of a linear presentation rather than this somewhat chaotic one.

This is one of the finest books I have ever read. It explains a difficult subject with clarity and enthusiasm. It should open your eyes to an entirely new way of viewing the world around you - not the linear world of cause and effect, but a world where things are not always as they appear. Gleick compells you along with his fine writing and obvious love for the subject. A great read for the scientifically inclined and the curious.

I found this book in a second hand clothes store under a pile of paisley print ties. It would be no exaggeration to say that it changed my whole way of viewing the Universe. I had heard of the "Butterfly Effect", (although I had even that wrong.) But I read with a mixture of awe and elation, that occasionally brought me close to tears. I promise you, after reading this book, you will never look at a cloud speckled sky, or raindrops suspended on a washing line (yes, go have a closer look at the intervals!) the same again. I read it three times, not because the first time was too hard to grasp, but just for the sheer joy of the journey. However, I did find the last sections, about the applications a little dull. It was like the final flat straight coming into the station after a thrilling roller-coaster ride. Anyone can make a simple subject complicated. Gleick has made a complex subject simple and appealing. Read this book and start seeing again.

I first read "Chaos" in high school, and then re-read it later. This is an excellent first book in chaos theory, and it treats a bit more scientifically and thoroughly than "Jurassic Park," which seems to be most people's first venture into chaos.

Gleick does an excellent, excellent job of writing an accessible book. A person with a good education and an open and curious mind will be able to read this book. I found a second reading of the book helped my understanding immensely, as some of the concepts are a little hard to comprehend. Gleick not only writes at a level accessible to most, but he also keeps the book compelling, with focus on the scientists and mathematicians who first broke ground in chaos theory, as well as some more concrete examples of how chaos theory permeates our world and increasingly our understanding of it.

This changed the way I looked at the world. The chaos-order link is astonishing, and I found a new respect and awe for nature . . . rivers, clouds, trees, mountains . . . it's literally everywhere. This is an excellent book for the inquisitive and thoughtful, especially for those with interests in mathematics or science.

1987 was the right time for a book like "Chaos," about the recent developments of a relatively new and exciting mathematical phenomenon that might interest a general public for whom higher mathematics normally has slightly less appeal than a root canal. It seems a little dated in 2002, especially with regard to the enormous interim advances in computing power, but James Gleick's book still provides valuable insight into potentially one of the most effective and revolutionary mathematical tools that may solve complex problems in science and engineering that have been baffling mankind for centuries.

Many processes and systems in nature can be modeled mathematically with differential equations, which are useful to scientists and engineers to predict and design things to improve the standard of living. Unfortunately, most of these systems are nonlinear, meaning that adding to an input does not produce the same addition to the output and that scaling an input does not scale the output in proportion, and the equations they yield cannot be solved in closed form without applying some judicious and optimistic simplifications. In particular, most systems have what is called "sensitive dependence to initial conditions" -- small changes in the input to the system can lead to large, unpredictable, and uncontrollable changes in the output, a phenomenon summarily called the Butterfly Effect.

The main point Gleick makes is that chaos is not total randomness, but rather randomness within certain generalities. For example, summers can be expected to be generally warm and winters generally cold, but specifics like thunderstorms and blizzards can't be predicted due to turbulence and the nonlinear nature of the Navier-Stokes equation, the defining equation of fluid dynamics. There is indeed order in chaos (as illustrated by fractals); it just needs to be identified and codified. To that effect, the book offers many pretty, colorful pictures of various representations of chaos: the Lorenz attractor, the Mandelbrot set, the Koch snowflake (a paradoxical finite area surrounded by an infinite perimeter), the Sierpinski carpet, and the Menger sponge (a paradoxical solid of infinite surface area yet zero volume).

Gleick discusses the origins of the study of chaos and its applications to different sciences -- physiology (heart rhythms, dimensions of organs), biology (animal populations), even economics. The writing is very good, explanatory without resorting to textbook-like rigidity, and not at all math-intensive -- very few equations are presented (in fact, I would have liked to have seen more). A reader who is familiar with differential equations (and how they describe physical systems) and calculus (and how it is used as a tool to solve linear differential equations) will have an easier time with the concepts, but rest assured this is a book for everybody.

This book is one of the earliest and best introductions to chaos theory available for the generalist. It is not so much a science text as it is a biography of the people who melded this amalgam of mathematics and science to produce an entirely new view of the world from a macro, rather than a micro viewpoint. Gleick's writing style is somewhat akin to a skilled mystery novelist, as he has a decided knack for revealing just the right tidbit at just the right time to optimally entertain and inform.

The scientific discussions in the book are relatively shallow, as is fitting for a general audience; after all the book was a national best seller and not only to be found in obscure corners of university bookstores. True academics and professionals within the field (or more accurately, fields) may find the book interesting, but more so from a historical standpoint rather than a rigorous scientific standpoint.

My assessment is that Gleick did the general reader a huge favor by producing this masterpiece, in that it serves as an excellent introduction to chaos theory that is accessible and comprehensible by intelligent people of varied backgrounds. In that sense he greatly surpassed his goal: this book is eminently readable and serves as a wonderful introduction to the science and personalities behind this new and wondrous theory.

First, the plusses. The book reads easily, and Gleick is careful to explain all the concepts he introduces so that a layman reader will understand. There is a lot of history in this book, where Gleick first explains the person who made the discovery before he explains the discovery itself. These sections can be tedious to a reader interested in the science, not Edward Lorenz' personal habits, but it works well to steady the pace of the book, and to give the non-scientific reader a breather before diving into more scientific concepts.

You can't always have the best of both worlds, though, and so at times, a more scientifically or mathematically reader will be frustrated with the lack of detail concerning some of the interesting concepts developed here. For example, Gleick mentions fractional dimensionality, but fails to really explain it well, probably assuming that it is beyond most of his readers. This is probably a safe bet for layman readers, but left me very frustrated in places. Also, Gleick's writing (praised as "novelistic") gets overly melodramatic in places, and the reader gets the distinct impression that he's trying too hard to make this book accessible.

But even despite these flaws, this is an excellent introduction to chaos theory, and worth reading for scientists and laymen alike. This book makes you want to learn more about chaos theory, and does a good job at making chaos accessible. It was written over fifteen years ago, though, so a more recent book on chaos would be a good supplement.