Chaos – James Gleick *****

The book on the most amazing development in mathematics since the introduction of the zero – chaos theory. Has a nice dramatic style that highlights the importance of the people involved in the maths, but can’t detract from the remarkable implications of this fundamentally new understanding of how almost everything really works, rather than the approximations we are used to in science…

… at least, that’s certainly the feeling you’ll get when you read the book. But then you take a step back and think, okay, what chaos done for the world since 1987 (or thereabouts) when the book first came out. And you have to say – very little. Chaos is fascinating, but usually turns out to be fundamentally impractical.

Does this detract from the book? Not at all. It’s still a fascinating read after all these years, and even if the best chaos can give us is Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park it doesn’t cease to intrigue.

Paperback:

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Review by Peter Spitz

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Target Earth – Govert Schilling *****

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Govert Schilling - Five Way Interview

Govert Schilling is an acclaimed and prize-winning freelance astronomy writer and broadcaster in the Netherlands. His articles appear in Dutch newspapers and magazines, but he also has written for New Scientist, Science and BBC Sky at Night Magazine, and he is a contributing editor of Sky & Telescope. He wrote dozens of books (including a couple of children’s books) on a wide variety of astronomical topics, many of which have been translated into English, German, Italian, and Chinese, among other languages. In 2007, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named asteroid 10986 Govert after him, and in 2014, he received the David N. Schramm Award for high-energy astrophysics science journalism from the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.His latest book is Target Earth . Why science? We live in troubling times. Fake news and conspiracy theories abound, and trust in science is diminishing. Many adults don't seem to realize that almost everythi...

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