Chaos: The Making of a New Science: Amazon.ca: James Gleick: Books

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Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, resides in this exclusive category. In Chaos, he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterize many natural phenomena.

This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader meets dozens of extraordinary and eccentric people. For instance, Mitchell Feigenbaum, who constructed and regulated his life by a 26-hour clock and watched his waking hours come in and out of phase with those of his coworkers at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

As for chaos itself, Gleick does an outstanding job of explaining the thought processes and investigative techniques that researchers bring to bear on chaos problems. Rather than attempt to explain Julia sets, Lorenz attractors, and the Mandelbrot Set with gigantically complicated equations, Chaos relies on sketches, photographs, and Gleick's wonderful descriptive prose.

From Publishers Weekly

Gleick here adventurously attempts to describe the revolutionary science of "chaos," a challengingly abstract new look at nature in terms of nonlinear dynamics. "A ground-breaking book about what seems to be the future of physics," praised PW. Illustrated. 100,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

81 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (81 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars an excellent introduction, May 27 2004

By

J. Fairfield (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Chaos: The Making of a New Science (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and exciting glimpse into chaos!, May 16 2004

By

Vivek Sharma "Kavi" (Cambridge / Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chaos: The Making of a New Science (Mass Market Paperback)

Chaos is a profound book. It provides you a new pair of glasses that changes completely how you look at this world. For anyone with even a little background in mathematics and physics, or rather a taste for science, this book provides a stimulating compilation on emergence of non-linear science. The story is written inbibing the usually unsung scientists as heroes of a vibrant saga of discovery, eccentricity and revolution of ideas!

Personally when I first read this book an year ago, I was able to comprehend that non-linear dynamics and chaos present a new set of tools to describe systems in all realms of science. The study of chaos contains key to understanding our nature better. Complexity is beautiful in form and patterns in chaos both awe and fascinate! An year later I am still trying to understand the technical details and mathematicals of chaos and nonlinear dynamics, but I feel an excitement for which I must thank Gleick! And not surprisingly, I have now moved to research with an open mind about possibilities in domains of nonlinearty.

Like I Ching said, "Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos". Maybe as Gleick claims, Chaos will be rated just below relativity and quantum mechanics as the key discoveries of last century!! Read it: it is fun!

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2.0 out of 5 stars More history than science!, Jan 20 2004

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Luigi (NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chaos: The Making of a New Science (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is more of an history book than a science book by volume. It drags on and on over the history of the scientists, however when it gets to explain the chaos characteristics it does so in a choppy way which might make the reader distracted and confused. Overall: MEDIOCRE.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Chaos is good
Chaos is a great book, however for an under-achiever (not passed calculus) person, it can and will be difficult in some chapters. Read more

Published on Jan 12 2004 by kceezie

4.0 out of 5 stars Understandable and Enjoyable
Drawing on examples form biology to astronomy, Gleick manages to make a complicated subject appealing to people from all scientific and mathematical backgrounds. Read more

Published on Jan 10 2004 by Kevin Zelnio