Donna Woodwell's Reviews > Chaos: Making a New Science

When this book came out in the late 80s, I remember eating in the college cafeteria while my physics teacher and fellow students chatted about this mysterious thing called "chaos theory." When I finally picked up my own copy, I wished I'd read it sooner.

The mathemetics of chaos (and order) has literally remade our moder world. From weather prediction to materials production to medicine, there's not a realm of technology that hasn't changed with our new understandings of the patterns that connect us all.

Though a popular science book can only gloss a highly technical subject, Gleick does it well. But I found this book even more engaging for the narrative tale of a moment in history -- a virtual paradigm shift in mathematical thought -- that happened in our lifetimes. It's a case study in political factions and egos, sometimes cooperation and always wonder at seeing the world in a new way.