Penguin science
2 total works
Moving on from his books on chaos ("Does God Play Dice?") and symmetry ("Fearful Symmetry"), the author of this book deals with the wider field of complexity theory. The book tackles the question of how complexity arises in nature, of how life overcomes chaos and entropy to create developing order. Co-written with biologist Jack Cohen, the book will range across the central areas of modern science, from quantum mechanics and cosmology to evolution and intelligence, looking at the central questions of order, chaos, reductionism and complexity.
Many philosophers have been impressed by the patterns in the physical world and have seen God as a mathematician. However, it is the breaking of symmetry that is responsible for nature's patterns. This work examines an array of natural phenomena to show the importance of broken symmetries. In doing so, it addresses some of the deepest concepts of modern physics - the arrow of time, the handedness of life, and the origins of biological form.