'Gribbin takes us through the basics with his customary talent for accessibility and clarity' - "Sunday Times". The world around us can be a complex, confusing place. Earthquakes happen without warning, stock markets fluctuate, weather forecasters seldom seem to get it right - even other people continue to baffle us. How do we make sense of it all? In fact, John Gribbin reveals, our seemingly random universe is actually built on simple laws of cause and effect that can explain why, for example, just one vehicle braking can cause a traffic jam; why wild storms result from a slight atmospheric change; even how we evolved from the most basic materials. Like a zen painting, a fractal image or the pattern on a butterfly's wings, simple elements form the bedrock of a sophisticated whole. Synthesizing chaos and complexity theory for the perplexed, "Deep Simplicity" brilliantly illuminates the harmony underlying our existence.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Exhilarating... Gribbin uses a step-by-step historical method to ground contemporary thought in classical physics' the Daily Telegraph 'Gribbin...takes us through the basics of all this with his customary talent for accessibility and clarity' the Sunday Times '(Gribbin) breathes life into the core ideas of complexity science, and argues convincingly that the basic laws, even in biology, will ultimately turn out to be simple' Nature' "What makes Deep Simplicity different from other books on complexity theory is that Gribbin ! goes back to the fundamentals' Daily Telegraph 'Gribbin takes us through the basics with his customary talent for accessibility and clarity' Sunday Times 'One is left feeling even more - if this is possible - filled with admiration for science and delight at the world it investigates' Financial Times 'Gribbin breathes life into the core ideas of complexity science' Nature'
About the Author
John Gribbin is one of today's greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books, including In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Stardust, Science: A History and Deep Simplicity. He is famous to his many fans for making complex ideas simple, and says that his aim in his writing - much of it done with his wife, Mary Gribbin - is to share with his readers his sense of wonder at the strangeness of the universe. John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is currently Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good look underneath the hood of chaos. A very good read.,
By D. Stuart "Researcher at Kudos" (Auckland NZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Deep Simplicity (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)
My reason for selecting this new volume was to get a better understanding of complexity theory and how certain laws can help us better understand our changing physical and social universes.
I was not disappointed, and John Gribbin displays his well established ability to explain often quite complicated ideas in an energetic style that sweeps the reader along. He begins by discussing two states - two different ends of the spectrum between Total Order and Total Chaos. Somewhere between those two states is a zone of complexity, where nature teeters on the brink between order and chaos. To use a metaphor, this is like the moment of transition when slush could melt or freeze, or when water might turn to vapour. In this zone very interesting things happen - both in the natural world (at an atomic or larger physical level) in the social world (when social networks form) and in the biological world which is where Gribbin ultimately takes us - showing us how complexity operates in food chains, but also in terms of DNA and evolution. The book is captivating and my only regret is that I didn't write down a few notes along the way so I can dig back and think about how some of the universal laws might explain why (in my line of work) some new products do - or don't succeed. On the cusp of chaos, anything might happen. I'm actually going to read Deep Simplicity Again because it is both so informative and so enjoyable. A good book to read in tandem with this one is Duncan Watt's excellent Six Degrees which focuses on network theory.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deep Simplicity,
By
This review is from: Deep Simplicity (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)
An excellent non-math explanation of chaos theory. Mr. Gribbin is able to touch the essence of chaos theory by discussing its application to various real life scenarios. Interesting and entertaining. It changed the way I view complex systems.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an impressive subject,
By
This review is from: Deep Simplicity (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)
I appreciate greatly the author's aim, sharing his sense of wonder with his readers. Gribbin gives a wide perspective about chaos and complexity with facts from the history of science.
Simple laws, non-linearity, sensitivity to initial conditions and feedback give rise to chaos and complexity. Gribbin tries to reveal the facts of our universe with these concepts. Also the author gives some good examples for accessing the subject with ease. Power law pattern and gaia concepts are also analyzed in the book for understanding life. I derived much benefit from this book.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Before the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the world seemed to be ruled by chaos in a quite different way from the way the term is used by scientists today, but in the same way that most people still apply the word. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Before the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the world seemed to be ruled by chaos in a quite different way from the way the term is used by scientists today, but in the same way that most people still apply the word. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
9
books
cite this book:
See all 9 books citing this book
- Belief: A Short History for Today by Geth Evans in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Theology That Matters: Ecology, Economy, and God by Darby Kathleen Ray in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Stepping Through The Stargate: Science, Archaeology And The Military In Stargate Sg1 (Smart Pop series) by P. N. Elrod on page 84
- Einstein, Bohr and the Quantum Dilemma: From Quantum Theory to Quantum Information by Andrew Whitaker in Back Matter
- The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock in Back Matter
See all 9 books citing this book
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