Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World - Hardcover

A fascinating addition to the works of Stephen Hawking, James Gleick, and Richard Feynman explains the scientific principle of complexity, illustrating the ways individual units--from ants to neurons--organize themselves into intricate structures.

ng edge of the sciences, at the theoretical frontier where breakthroughs in a broad spectrum of fields intersect, a dynamic new concept is emerging: complexity.
In this groundbreaking new book, Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield, the scientist coauthors of the highly praised The Arrow of Time, explore how complexity in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, and even the social sciences is transforming not only the way we think about the universe, but also the very assumptions that underlie conventional science.
Coveney and Highfield define complexity as a watchword for a new way of thinking about the behavior of interacting units, whether they are atoms, bits within a computer, ants in a colony, or the neurons firing in the human brain. Complexity reaches far beyond the concept of chaos and represents a profound shift away from the reductive principle that has guided science for centuries, fostering a new synthesis of concepts across many disciplines. Frontiers of Complexity traces the