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James Gleick

Chaos: Making a New Science Paperback – August 26, 2008

by James Gleick (Author)

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The million-copy bestseller by National Book Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist James Gleick—the author of Time Travel: A History—that reveals the science behind chaos theory

A work of popular science in the tradition of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, this 20th-anniversary edition of James Gleick’s groundbreaking bestseller Chaos introduces a whole new readership to chaos theory, one of the most significant waves of scientific knowledge in our time. From Edward Lorenz’s discovery of the Butterfly Effect, to Mitchell Feigenbaum’s calculation of a universal constant, to Benoit Mandelbrot’s concept of fractals, which created a new geometry of nature, Gleick’s engaging narrative focuses on the key figures whose genius converged to chart an innovative direction for science. In Chaos, Gleick makes the story of chaos theory not only fascinating but also accessible to beginners, and opens our eyes to a surprising new view of the universe.

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

August 26, 2008
Dimensions

1.3 x 5.5 x 8.4 inches
ISBN-10

9780143113454
ISBN-13

978-0143113454
Lexile measure

1160L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Fascinating . . . almost every paragraph contains a jolt.” —The New York Times

“Taut and exciting . . . a fascinating illustration of how the pattern of science changes.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Highly entertaining . . . a startling look at newly discovered universal laws.”—Chicago Tribune

“An awe-inspiring book. Reading it gave me that sensation that someone had just found the light switch.” —Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Chaos is a feast.” —The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

James Gleick was born in New York City in 1954. He worked for ten years as an editor and reporter for The New York Times, founded an early Internet portal, the Pipeline, and has written several books of popular science, including The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, which won the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and Time Travel: A History. He lives in Key West and New York.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0143113453
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; 20th Anniversary ed. edition (August 26, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780143113454
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143113454
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1160L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.3 x 5.5 x 8.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #33,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Fractal Mathematics
- #7 in Chaos Theory
- #9 in System Theory

Customer Reviews:
1,458 ratings

About the author

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James Gleick
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James Gleick was born in New York and began his career in journalism, working as an editor and reporter for the New York Times. He covered science and technology there, chronicling the rise of the Internet as the Fast Forward columnist, and in 1993 founded an Internet startup company called The Pipeline. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.
His home page is at http://around.com, and on Twitter he is @JamesGleick.
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Customer reviews

5 star		69%
4 star		21%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Du Nguyen

A confused book about chaos theory and the people who discovered it.

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2017

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Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick is the story of how chaos theory was popularized in different fields of study.
In Chaos, Gleick looks at how the science of chaos was developed. It's pretty interesting to follow how researchers in different fields somehow discovers how the theory is not as it seems. How simple systems are not just simple systems but can evolve into complex systems. And how these researchers through their curiosity and open-mindedness were able to see that perhaps there's a new paradigm and a new theory to be discovered.

Unfortunately I don't think this book is very well written. The purpose and point of the book is quite hard to see. Does Gleick want to tell us about chaos? In that case the explanations are few and far between and when an explanation of chaos is attempted, it doesn't quite adequately explain it. Perhaps this is more to tell the human side of chaos? How recognition might not always come but the pursuit of truth is more important. In this case I am unconvinced as the structure doesn't allow that to come across. The book seems to be more about individuals and looks to be split up into small autobiographies. Finishing this book, I'm not really sure what it was I was supposed to get out of it. The most interesting point for me was how Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions was exemplified but other than this I don't feel like I got anything else out of the book.

This is then not a book about chaos theory. It's more a collection of stories of the people who helped bring about chaos theory and their struggles in doing so.

144 people found this helpful

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VB

Important book for scientists, tough read for laypersons

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2016

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This book describes the beginnings of an important theory that explains many patterns and behaviors observed in nature that are not usually discussed in traditional science classes even to this day. It's not an easy read but the book's content is well worth the effort especially to those interested in science and how nature "works".

I believe this book will be most rewarding to readers with knowledge of science at high-school & college levels, in particular readers that understand how equations/math are used in sciences to describe and predict the behavior of various systems/objects.

3-stars for the prose. Gleick's writing doesn't flow and is often hard to follow. I can't say it was enjoyable read, most of the time I felt that I had to "extract" what he is trying to say by rereading certain sections.

5-stars for the content, breadth, and depth. Gleick casts a wide net in describing how pieces of Chaos theory emerged from several scientific fields. He did a phenomenal job in researching the topic and immersing himself in technical details.

Several keywords to take away from this book are : Chaotic systems, Fractals and Self-Similar patterns, Butterfly effect, Nonlinear systems,Dynamic systems, Bifurcating systems, Attractor. One example of how fractals appear in landscapes: [...].
Chaos theory spawned several new subfields broadly can be labelled as Emergent Complexity.

88 people found this helpful

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It's earlier than you think

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2021

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It's easy to think that, living in the year 2021, we are on our way to figuring everything out. This book shows how much more there is to learn. Chaos theory is based on non-linear systems, which are functions that with a minor tweak to the input result in significant and unpredictable outputs. This phenomenon is most familiar to people through the 'butterfly effect' which states that a butterfly flapping its wings in Asia can create a tsunami in South America through a cascade of events.

I am partial to science and found this book fascinating. Numerous scientists and major contributors to chaos theory, which as you can imagine include some colorful and unique characters, are documented and Gleick does an excellent job providing enough detail to allow for a basic understanding, without getting technical to the point of confusion. There are also several illustrations that help clarify the ideas presented. I was hoping for a little more descriptions pertaining to how chaos theory was applied to the financial markets, but there are several examples given that illustrate the relevance of the field.

It is surprising to think about how advanced our society is, yet we are still unable to fully describe everyday occurrences like creamer mixing into coffee. As tempting as it is to try to fit data sets into normal distributions and other orderly patterns, nature consistently demonstrates that these models only correspond to reality under certain conditions and these conditions are rarely satisfied.

I was also hoping to get more of an update in the afterword regarding how much this field has advanced since the book was written over two decades ago. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes science or is generally a curious person.

16 people found this helpful

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Patrick Thibaut

Nice book if you like math but the history of math even more.

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2017

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This book was not bad and it tought me a thing or two, but I would have liked more math. It's 75% about 'the who's who on campus', I mean the history of scientists and their discoveries.

38 people found this helpful

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Julio1fer

Interesting introduction

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2018

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Very readable introduction to the field, an excellent popular account. I had read Mandelbrodt's classic on fractals when it appeared, but had not followed on developments.

In this book, I liked the story-telling and didactic explanations. Should be a nice gift for youngsters interested in math or physics. A bit more explicit math would have been helpful; sometimes the author bends over backwards to avoid even simple formulae or equations, which might have been easier to understand for readers with college math than verbal explanations.

I got interested and probably will follow on with more advanced material.

The book may be a bit dated now, but not being an expert, I find it hard to point out specific items that should be added or updated. I am sure that a lot of things have happened after the book was published. I would also have appreciated a longer list of citations of the original publications.

14 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Sitting Bull

Important themes and topics but poorly written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2020

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I'm not sure if I'm just too stupid but this book is so difficult to read. The concepts are not difficult to understand, but the way its written it so (ironically) chaotic that its so difficult to understand what the heck James Gleick is trying to say. It's not difficult to understand the jist behind things like Chaos Theory and Non-Linear Dynamics - I fully understand what this is. But the way James explains the experiments and the concepts are so goddam awful that I ended up having to do internet research - it took 2 lines from the opening paragraph of Wikipedia to summarise everything James said in some entire chapters. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because I appreciate him introducing the words to me. But thats all he did, introduce the words, I had to understand the concepts, the people behind the experiments and the experiments myself via internet research (and it took FAR FAR FAR FAR less time understanding things from a Wikipedia article or YouTube video which go into MUCH more depth too).

8 people found this helpful

Nicholas J. Dawes

A history of the study of chaos theory that leaves a lot unanswered.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is not a text book on chaos theory, but rather a history of the study of chaos theory. The author tries hard to make it attractive for the general reader, with pages of anecdotes about the odd characters who developed the subject, but by about half way through I started to find that irritating and began asking 'where's the beef'.

To make sense of the book the reader needs a basic knowledge of calculus, differential equations and imaginary numbers, at least up to A level standard. It desperately needs a glossary, and it would also help to have a timeline with brief explanations about who contributed what to the study. My background is in engineering so I found myself asking what were the applications of the various strands of the theory, something a pure mathematician would never do.

I started out knowing little about chaos theory, and ended up still not able to say that I understood it, but having reached the Rumsfeld status of 'known unknowns', I now know what it is I don't know, and am hungry to learn more.

28 people found this helpful

Andie

Really good accessible guide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2021

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I am a bit biased in that I find this topic fascinating but ignoring that this book is very accessible, you don’t need to be qualified in maths to enjoy it! It is wide ranging and covers all the basic topics without muddying the waters with too much detail. It’s really not so scary, so what have you got to lose? Give it a go! You may even find yourself inspired to take your interest further like I am about to!!

2 people found this helpful

Neha Chaturvedi

Extraordinary work...before time delivery by Amazon

Reviewed in India on May 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

The book is almost a tribute to early contributors to non-linear sciences. So many that even if I could, I could mention only fewer than few of them.

Hence, I will skip ahead & won't come across partial towards anyone...well except Edward Lorenz!

I also found the highest points of the book in the topics of universality, helium in a box, information theory, fractals & the rhythm of scales, mode locking, cross section of an attractor, coastline measurement, briefly mentioned theorem related to deterministic non-periodic flow, horseshoe, degrees of freedom...

It is astonishing that even with so much progress, most of these topics are either not mentioned in mainstream curriculum or not appreciated as those should be.

Therefore, the book is for everyone & anyone who may find non-linear sciences unnecessary, in the way or daunting.

There are many excellent quotes by the pioneers of this field & author himself...some struck me like a lightning bolt while others lingered in the thoughts slowly taking over. More often then not, this made me to take the happy long pause to follow the racing of thoughts.

In my little understanding of the science, I suppose the degrees of freedom I could understand here is perhaps a sibling to the topics of uncertainty principle and paradox of observations.

Anyhow, I will certainly be back to refer this book again and again...yet not every fallback being exactly the same :)

48 people found this helpful

Rob

Brilliant book about the birth of Chaos Theory

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

I bought this book when it was first released and as introduced me to Chaos theory in a language that is easy to understand and engaging. As an science undergrad, this made such a large impact into what I had previously thought about determinism in simple equations that I had to buy it as a gift when a friend started expressing an interest in the area.