“Book Descriptions: How can something called chaos theory help you understand an orderly world? What practical things might it be good for? What, in fact, is chaos theory? These 24 lectures take you to the heart of chaos theory as it is understood today and introduce you to the science of how things change: a fascinating discipline that has more to do with your life than you may realize. Professor Strogatz makes the case for why chaos theory marks such a radical departure from traditional science: It asks unusual questions at the everyday scale of human life; it shifts the focus off the laws of nature and onto their consequences; it’s radically interdisciplinary in an era of increasingly specialized disciplines; and it paints a topsy-turvy picture of the world in which simple systems can show complex behavior. Professor Strogatz's expert guidance lays bare the complexities of chaos theory in a way that any interested layperson can understand. As you follow the story of chaos theory's development, you’ll approach the core ideas of chaos in the same way the world's greatest thinkers, grounded in their historical contexts, once did. This story not only helps you understand the fundamentals of this field, but it also helps you appreciate the extraordinary intellectual feat that chaos theory represents.With the insights these lectures provide, news stories about key scientific discoveries and new directions in research will take on a fresh importance.” DRIVE