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.

James Gleick explains the theories behind the fascinating new science called chaos. Alongside relativity and quantum mechanics, it is being hailed as the twentieth century's third revolution. 8 pages of photos.

Chaos by James Gleick is a must read if you like keeping up with science or just like reading things that broaden the perspectives of your thinking. Gleick does a masterful job of simplifying the science of Chaos to a level any bright kid can understand while not diminishing any of its importance or ignoring any of the details. If you're curious about what a Klein bottle actually is or a Lorenzo's butterflies, this is the book for you. The illustrations of the Mandlbrot sets are truly amazing and worth the cost of the book just to look at. With his clear, concise style Gleick leads the reader through the history of Chaos science while building a strong foundation for the understanding of it. You don't need to know how to use a slide rule to read this book and it would be a memorable gift for any adult or child interested in science.

Nutshell review - a good book, written well and very entertaining. A good introduction to chaos and complexity science for us lay-people.

A popular science type of book (the popular part you can see from the numbers), where Gleick takes a look at the science of Chaos theory.

Not in a rigorous mathematical way, but more in a history of and introduction and overview of the subject, with of course examples of what he is talking about throughout.


3.5 out of 5

Okay, so it was a bestseller. That doesn't mean you didn't miss it. It doesn't mean you shouldn't read it again. Order in chaos and vice versa, the butterfly that creates a typhoon, fractal geometry, wildlife populations and dripping faucets (about which, more in a future Soupletter) - a book about ideas formerly on the scientific fringe that are now considered on a par with Relativity Theory (which, you will remember, made a considerable bang). ContempIating this review, I picked up CHAOS at the library (three or four years had elapsed since my first read) and was sucked in afresh. Meet a scientist who experimented with 26 hour days, another who found an operational definition of free will. Fascinatin' Rythms, Smooth Noodle Maps, Ice Ages and heartbeats. This is physics where the rubber meets the road. You don't need to follow the math (I don't, I just roll on by ...) to appreciate the ride. "Beautifully lucid," according to the San Francisco Chronicle which one notes, is published beside a once lucidly beautiful bay.

James Gleick changed my view on the scientific world forever in his book Chaos. I feel that I've removed my old, Euclidean perception of the world and have replaced it with a more complex, organic, and dynamic view. This book is a great introduction to chaos and is not meant to describe the applications of this theory. The applied sciences of chaos, complexity, or systems theories are readily available in journals and other pubs, just do a little research.