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Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity

John Gribbin

3.92 · Rating details · 948 ratings · 82 reviews

Over the past two decades, no field of scientific inquiry has had a more striking impact across a wide array of disciplines–from biology to physics, computing to meteorology–than that known as chaos and complexity, the study of complex systems. Now astrophysicist John Gribbin draws on his expertise to explore, in prose that communicates not only the wonder but the ...more

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Hardcover, 279 pages

Published April 5th 2005 by Random House (first published 2004)

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Dec 01, 2011 Josh Hamacher rated it liked it

This book is about chaos and complexity, how the interaction of simple rules can result in complex behavior.

The first quarter of the book is a remarkably readable history of math. Starting with Galileo and moving forward to modern times, Gribbin mentions most of the major discoveries that led to the modern understanding of chaos. I was very much looking forward to the rest of the book after finishing this second chapter.

Unfortunately the rest of the book was a minor disappointment. Without a ...more

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Sep 19, 2019 Vishy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have read a few John Gribbin books and loved them all. His book about quantum theory, 'In Search of Schrödinger's Cat', is a classic. I have had 'Deep Simplicity' with me for a long time. I thought it was time to take it out and read it for 'Science September'.

In 'Deep Simplicity', John Gribbin talks about Chaos theory. I remember during my student days one of my classmates was reading about it and he was planning to apply it in his research on business cycles. I don't know whether he was able I have read a few John Gribbin books and loved them all. His book about quantum theory, 'In Search of Schrödinger's Cat', is a classic. I have had 'Deep Simplicity' with me for a long time. I thought it was time to take it out and read it for 'Science September'.

In 'Deep Simplicity', John Gribbin talks about Chaos theory. I remember during my student days one of my classmates was reading about it and he was planning to apply it in his research on business cycles. I don't know whether he was able to do that and whether he came out with interesting predictions which came true. That was probably the first time that I had heard about Chaos theory. In essence, as John Gribbin describes it, Chaos theory is simple. It tries to study systems which start with simple origins but result in complex patterns and behaviour. And it also tries to study what happens if some minor changes are made at the start. The conclusion is that minor changes in the initial conditions will lead to complex, unbelievable changes later. That is all there is to Chaos theory. Because it is an interdisciplinary field with applications across different areas like physics, chemistry, biology, geology, economics, the stock market, traffic movement and weather forecasting, there are many different techniques and ways of studying how real world systems behave, when they evolve from simple origins to complex futures. John Gribbin describes some of these across these different fascinating fields. He describes the beauty of fractals and how they are observed in the real world in surprising ways. He talks about something called the 'power law' and describes how it amazes us by manifesting itself in the real world in surprising ways. Gribbin is strong when he talks about physics and its related areas because it is his field, but he also spends considerable time in biology, the evolution of life and the extinction of dinosaurs and other species. It is very fascinating to read.

I enjoyed reading 'Deep Simplicity'. John Gribbin gives a beautiful guided tour of physics in the initial chapters before delving into other branches of science and other fields, while exploring Chaos theory. It is not an easy read, because it demands close attention and contemplation, but it is a rewarding read.

I am giving below the first couple of passages from the introduction to the book which sets the tone for the rest of the book, so that you can get a flavour for the subject and also experience Gribbin's style.

"The world around us seems to be a complex place. Although there are some simple truths that seem to be eternal (apples always fall to the ground, not to the sky; the Sun rises in the east, never in the west), our lives, in spite of modern technology, are still, all too often, at the mercy of complicated processes that produce dramatic changes out of the blue. Weather forecasting is still as much an art as a science; earthquakes and volcanic eruptions strike unpredictably, and seemingly at random; stock-market fluctuations continue to produce boom and bust with no obvious pattern to them. From the time of Galileo (in round numbers, the beginning of the seventeenth century) science made progress – enormous progress – largely by ignoring these complexities, and focusing on the simple questions, looking to explain why apples fall to the ground, and why the Sun rises in the east. Progress was so spectacular, indeed, that by about the middle of the twentieth century all the simple questions had been answered. Concepts such as the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics explained the overall workings of the Universe on the very large and very small scales respectively, while the discovery of the structure of DNA and the way in which it is copied from generation to generation made life itself, and evolution, seem simple at the molecular level. And yet, the complexity of the world at the human level – at the level of life – remained. The most interesting question of all, the question of how life could have emerged from non-life, remained unanswered.
It is no surprise that the most complex features of the Universe, which proved most reluctant to yield to the traditional methods of scientific investigation, should exist on our scale. Indeed, we may be the most complex things there are in the Universe. The reason is that on smaller scales entities such as individual atoms behave in a relatively simple way in their one-to-one interactions, and that complicated and interesting things are produced when many atoms are linked together in complicated and interesting ways, to make things like people. But this process cannot continue indefinitely, since if more and more atoms are joined together, their total mass increases to the point where gravity crushes all the interesting structure out of existence. An atom, or even a simple molecule like water, is simpler than a human being because it has little internal structure; a star, or the interior of a planet, is simpler than a human being because gravity crushes any structure out of existence. And that is why science can tell us more about the behaviour of atoms and the internal workings of the stars than it can about the way people behave."

Have you read 'Deep Simplicity' by John Gribbin? What do you think about it? ...more

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Aug 17, 2018 Nyamka Ganni is currently reading it

Shelves: charlie-munger-list, non-fiction, science

I don't really get why this book is not popular enough! This is amazing!!

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Jul 11, 2014 Sajith Kumar rated it liked it

Shelves: popular-science

Noted science writer, John Gribbin, is on to a little known aspect of science related to chaos theory and self-organized complexity that is the basis of life and other complex systems. The book is organized as to be helpful for the initiate, and is a good attempt to bring this new concept into the public domain. Mathematics breaks down when the systems move from simple shapes or manipulations to complex objects and repetitive interactions begin on a large scale. Future states of such systems Noted science writer, John Gribbin, is on to a little known aspect of science related to chaos theory and self-organized complexity that is the basis of life and other complex systems. The book is organized as to be helpful for the initiate, and is a good attempt to bring this new concept into the public domain. Mathematics breaks down when the systems move from simple shapes or manipulations to complex objects and repetitive interactions begin on a large scale. Future states of such systems cannot be predicted in advance, as a slight change in the initial conditions would deviate the system through a wide margin from the original. These entities are said to be on the edge of chaos and is the basis of most physical systems existing on earth. The novel concept brought home in the book is the application of this deceptively simple construct to the as yet unfathomable issue of emergence of life on this planet. Gribbin has put forward a fairly consistent argument on this issue and is a good starting point for further study.

Science broke free of the shackles of organized religion in the 17th century. Galileo’s infamous trial and incarceration is, ironically, the very last of such well-known instances. The human intellect was thus freed to explore the wide world, which it promptly did. Epochal events and discoveries were unfolded in that century, with Newton’s theory of gravitation, birth of calculus, gas laws and the first glimmers of electricity. When at last the overarching fetters of religion were finally removed, science progressed along the path of determinism, in order to deny any role for a supernatural force to dictate terms in scientific theories. Laplace crowned the deterministic faction by boldly claiming that if you know the laws of interaction between all particles and their exact initial states, you will be able to predict all the future states of the system quite faithfully. He is even claimed to have once remarked to Napoleon that he didn’t want God to turn up anywhere in his account of why the world is how it is! But as science extended its knowledge from the basics to the subtle, its limitations were soon exposed in painful detail. Even gravity was a problem when the number of interacting bodies increased. Newton’s equation is solvable even for a high school student, if we simplify the situation so as to involve only two bodies. When three objects are involved, the equations can’t be solved analytically, only approximations are possible. Consider the case of the solar system then, and we may feel butterflies in our stomach when we learn that nobody has been able to prove that the solar system is stable in the long run! However, we may take some consolation that the ‘long’ in long run is indeed long, say, a few billion years. This system is said to be chaotic, not in the literary sense, but as a very complex system that runs on simple principles, but made impossibly difficult to predict by positive feedback. Chaos means that the response for even a small change in the input might be immense, as evident in references to the ‘Butterfly Effect’, the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in the Amazonian rain forest setting up a train of events that result in a tornado in Texas. But obviously, this example is highly exaggerated.

Readers are in for a surprise to know that self-organized complex systems cover everything from climate systems, astronomical objects, the biological kingdoms and even the collapse of a sand pile. Each illustration given in the book is followed by graphical representations and very informative text. The fundamental characteristic of all these systems is that they are not linear. You won’t get proportional change in output corresponding to a change in input. Here, a power law is involved, as the output is proportional to some power of the input. Hope everyone remembers their school math! The power of a number means the number multiplied that many times with itself. The secret behind eliciting a large response from a small stimulus is this power relation. Add to that the interaction among individuals. You get a complex system teetering on the edge of chaos.

Several charts and illustrative diagrams are squeezed into the text, but they lack clarity and visual appeal. Rather than instruments for better comprehension, these diagrams seem to serve the requirement of incorporating visual media in a volume of popular science. The diagrams are not anchored to the text. The readers have no clue at what point they should stop reading the text and look at the picture. So we reach a consensus to study the chart before the page is turned over. And, though it may seem uncharitable, it must be said that, in a future edition, if all the charts are omitted by mistake, a person reading the text won’t notice it.

As a sequel to the above, it is to be noted that the book literally overflows with text that fails to carry conviction. However, to do justice to Gribbin, any book on chaos and self-organized complexity is marred by this same disadvantage. This may probably be due to the non-availability of second layer (not to be confused with second rate) writers who take inputs from first layer writers and simplify it for the lay audience. Chaos is still the preserve of pioneering writers.

Gribbin walks out of the beaten path of chaos theory to endorse evolution. He asserts the truth of the theory of evolution in unequivocal terms. Propagandists of creation and intelligent design often accuse evolution to be only a theory and not fact. Gribbin concludes that Evolution is a theory in the same sense of saying that gravity is Newton’s theory. In another context, he specifies that a hypothesis is an untested postulate and when it is supported by experiment, it graduates to the status of a theory. Evolution is a tried and tested theory in that sense.

The book also includes a defense for James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis with the rather bold conclusion that is a theory. But here, the association is doubtful. It appears as if the author’s personal familiarity with Lovelock and his ideas are dictating terms here. Gaia’s relevance to the subject under study is given only glancingly. Moreover, Gribbin is a renowned popularizer of science who is also a prolific author. Naturally, his works cover almost all areas of physics. Consequently he advises the readers through foot notes to refer to his various books, if they want to clarify a point under discussion. This self advertisement is amusing to behold.
...more

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Sep 28, 2018 Deniz Cem Önduygu rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biology, science, physics, mathematics

This was my first Gribbin and the first few chapters made me regret not reading him before: a delightful historical summary of our theories for gravity and thermodynamics with patiently explained mathematics, accompanied by a careful discussion of determinism – a real page-turner.

The latter part of the book however didn't live up to my expectations – especially the way he handles the issue of life, endorsing a metabolism-first approach without explaining how RNA-DNA integrated into it, and not ...more

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Jun 05, 2019 Abraham Dabengwa rated it really liked it

Still reading the book. My opinion of the book is imperfect but I worry that James Gleick's Chaos was a better presentation. Gribbin does dig up a lot of historical facts to piece together a story, however, most is partisan to the old world. It's a useful book on complexity or chaos science... This is a more accessible book compared with others out there. As bonus, it's not pretentious.

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Jan 02, 2019 Manoj Joshi rated it it was amazing

There are some rare texts that invite your thinking and even challenge it one step ahead of what you contemplate . Assorting complex dimensions round one self directed by the existence of physics in ones life the author has done great justice in thought provoking chapters well gardened for novice and advanced readers . As of now it has entered in my shelf of all time favourite and will analyse its content once I read few more books . Must for thinkers

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Jan 11, 2016 Richard Ash rated it really liked it

Shelves: physics

Overall good book:
- Some parts are too long
- author jumps around a lot (though I guess that's expected given the topic)
- main point of the book is fascinating, I'm curious to see where this research goes in the future, especially regarding the origin of life

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Jan 20, 2020 Craig rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, science, mathematics, physics

Interesting and mind-stretching though the material is, this book suffers from some British Academic Stuffiness that made my eyes glaze over time and again. Gribbin tries to make the underlying science accessible, but there's a bar there that even I couldn't quite hurdle over. This book could have used a more populist editor, I think, to trim the fat of biographical trivia, hair-splitting details that don't affect the larger ideas, and over-engineered sentences that run on and barely hold up ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 YHC rated it it was amazing

This book took me a lot of focus to be able to finish it. So much information from evolution, computer science (Turing machine), cosmology...etc.
It starts from the chaos, thanks to the chaos with patterns, everything follow the law of physics in a predictable way: power law. Earthquakes, economic..,etc. What caught my eyes in this book was about the connection of Alan Turing and evolution on animal fur/ skin color patterns.
"In fact, one overarching theory of how biological patterns form comes ...more

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Sep 04, 2017 Sagar Acharya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Science admirers and investors

Recommended to Sagar by: Charlie Munger

In an excellent non-mathematical language, John goes on to explain the prerequisites required to understand life generating systems.

He explains power law on how positive feedback loops give exponential function equivalents in real life, fractals, some very important entities to understand complexity generating out of simplicity, evolution to show how today's life forms have been created by simple changing factors and shows the real life examples to understand complexity with simplicity. He also ...more

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Jan 14, 2019 Martin J rated it it was amazing

It took me a long time to read this book, mainly reading small sections and intermittently. Not necessarily an easy read, but full of fascinating ideas and covering in effect the broadest possible spectrum of life, the universe and everything. For me it’s another book which I know I’m likely to read again. What’s more I’m sure I’ll get even more from it the next time I read it. The principle theme is initially difficult to grasp, but once the penny drops I think you have a ‘aha’ moment (or ...more

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Mar 14, 2017 Matt rated it really liked it

I read this book on a dare from Charlie Munger.

I understood about 3/4 of it and what I understood was pretty fantastic. There are some amazing ideas about how life and the universe work.

I especially liked the explanation of how the sun is much larger now than it was a billion years ago and yet the Earth's temperature remains the same.

And the bit about how life on another planet can be identified simply by the presence of significant amounts of Oxygen and Nitrogen in the atmosphere.

This is ...more

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Jun 25, 2019 Scribe rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Bought many years ago and day on the shelf as I don't read many hardbacks. Finally got round to this though and glad I did. 4 stars as some parts are fairly dry and, even in their simple form, are helped out by a bit of a background in maths and other theory.

But there are some points in here which absolutely blew me away, and indeed changed my life. The emergence of order, of systems (planetary, life, intelligence etc) and its *inevitability* turned my world on its head.

So a must read if you're ...more

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Dec 06, 2017 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

Good overview of Chaos Theory as it applies to our world, though perhaps a little preoccupied with the question of the origins of life. It's a wide, deep topic and at 253 pages some parts feel a little short-changed, so perhaps it could be considered a good starting point to explore outward in areas of interest. Accessible to the interested amateur with, say, Algebra and a smattering of Calculus.

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Jul 22, 2019 Daniel B-G rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-pile, science

This was a bit of a slog, but with a lot of interesting stuff in there. It made some sense of the whole story from Newton to modern chaos and complexity in a coherent and interesting manner, which is a huge achievement. It was just a little hard to make progress at times, though that may be more a reflection on me and my sleep deprived toddler addled brain.

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Feb 06, 2019 Delsom rated it really liked it

Gribbin goes from describing the spectroscopic analysis required to provide evidence of life on a planet to summarizing his whole book in the swoop of one paragraph. If you desire to think briefly about many intricately scientific and mathematical topics, this book is for you. If you want that summary after each topic, choose something less grand in scope.

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Jun 04, 2018 Adrian rated it it was amazing

Started the book last year ad couldn't get through it. Demanding book, but made it through it the second time.

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Oct 02, 2017 Spencer rated it really liked it

Loved this book. If finding out that seemingly abstract mathematical principles apply to all sorts of situations in nature gives you satisfaction, this is the book for you.

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Sep 10, 2017 Deepak Saxena rated it really liked it

An accessible and relatively recent (Compared to Gliek's Chaos, 1988) book on Chaos and Complexity theory discussing the edge of chaos and the emergence if life.

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Sep 02, 2019 Johannes Marks rated it it was amazing

Brilliantly written, absolutely stunning tour de force through some of the most coherent sets of theroies of how life emerged and how likely theres more of it elsewhere.

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Aug 15, 2017 Tim Van Kemenade rated it it was amazing

A mesmerizing read on how vast complex systems emerge from incredibly simple elements. Makes one wonder about our own existence. I am bedazzled!

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May 28, 2019 Brian Motyka rated it did not like it

Didn’t even finish it

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Mar 22, 2019 Liam rated it liked it

Recommended to Liam by: Saw as other books by the author from the Shadow of a Giant

Interesting facts, particularly about Gaia and Lovelock, but the claims are not well-supported. Author jumps from one interesting fact or claim to another with inadequate support for sweeping claims. For example, he claims the arrow of time steps from gravity, but doesn't explain how. In some cases, he refers to his previous books. More often, he brings in some fact and then dismisses it with "but we won't talk about that any more" and moves on to another, seemingly unrelated topic.

Chapter 5 ...more

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May 19, 2012 Calum rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physics, non-fiction, science, mathematics

Deep Simplicity is a popular science book about the theory of chaos. As always, John Gribbin presents the subject in a remarkably accessible way - the educated layperson will be able to tackle this book. However, it is not without drawbacks.

(view spoiler) Deep Simplicity is a popular science book about the theory of chaos. As always, John Gribbin presents the subject in a remarkably accessible way - the educated layperson will be able to tackle this book. However, it is not without drawbacks.

(view spoiler)[
The book starts out with a concise history of mathematics relating to chaos. Gribbin begins with the Greeks and Galileo and moves onto Newton, and the issue of the three-body problem (where it is impossible to use Newton's laws of motion to generate analytical solutions to a situation in which there are three bodies of similar size affecting each other under gravity). He then talks about thermodynamics, and the concept of entropy and how this leads to an arrow of time. Gribbin also introduces an idea which he seems to be very fond of, that life is an example of using energy flow to reduce local entropy.

The next section introduces some of the mathematics behind chaos. Gribbin describes how the iterative approximation techniques used in finding solutions to can never be exactly accurate. The concept of phase space, where a single point completely describes a system using multiple dimensions, is used by Poincare to deal with the problem of the Solar System's stabilty. Gradually, Gribbin brings the reader to the realisation that some systems, such as the weather, while deterministic in principle, are very difficult to predict in practice because of the non-linearity of their progression. Simply, small changes in initial conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes. Indeed, the impossibility of knowing the precise positions or momenta of anything makes such precise prediction unachievable even in principle.

The idea of chaos as deterministic yet unpredictable order comes in the next section with the example of turbulence - a single parameter, the fluid speed, is changing, yet the flow changes from regular to turbulent to laminar. Additionally, the chaotic pattern appears to be fractally self-similar, like the Feigenbaum diagram describing species reproduction. Other fractals such as the Sierpinski gasket and the Cantor set are discussed, as well issues of fractal dimension. However, recognising that completely regular and completely random systems are uninteresting, Gribbin quickly ushers the reader onto the "edge of chaos, where complexity lives."

The rest of the book appears to be satisfying some of the author's own interests, however. He takes many aspects of living development, including abiogenesis, Gaia systems, predator-prey relationships and more and tries to recognise chaotic patterns in them all. He notes that any such system that incoporates feedback will generate chaotic behaviour, but often there seems to be little gained from understanding that the behaviour is chaotic - for example, the idea that Ice Ages are chaotic fluctuations in a punctuated equilibrium appears to be difficult to test!
(hide spoiler)]

Gribbin succeeds in conveying the history and principles of chaos in his first sections, as well as their relevance to many areas of science - especially the complexities of life. However, unlike some of his other books on quantum physics, among others, I feel like this topic is one that is best dealt with in greater detail than can be used in a popular science book. Gribbin uses examples well to illustrate the points, but without understanding derivations it is hard to avoid feeling like much of the book is assumed. Additionally, it is possible to see how the book has been structured in hindsight, but while reading I felt disorientated as he jumps from one area to another. Again, understanding more about the principles behind chaos would have remedied this somewhat. An interesting read, but not as engaging as I might have hoped. ...more

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Jan 05, 2018 Sofia Hou rated it it was ok

First half was better than second half. Writing style a little dry.

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Feb 06, 2011 Toby rated it liked it

John Gribbin is a polymath science writer, but his background is as an astrophysicist. His earlier works on quantum mechanics (In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics And Reality and Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries) were accessible, entertaining, as well as educational.

This book opens some deep wells of difficult-to-comprehend ideas, which I'm sure were just as difficult to translate to a popular science audience. In the Introduction, ...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Louisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, non-fiction, mathematics, physics, entropy

How did the zebra get its stripes? We've all come across the stories that provide us with some answer or another, mostly involving paint, scorching fire, or the animal in question standing quietly in the shade of some long grass blades. I thought they were beautiful stories, all of them, but none of the explanations were quite as convincing as the one we find in Deep Simplicity.

Gribbin takes us through the history of discoveries in the fields of physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology that ...more

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Aug 22, 2016 Sean Goh rated it it was ok · review of another edition

For a book that's supposed to be readable, I found it rather dull and boring.
If you're looking for something on emergent behaviour, Critical Mass by Phillip Ball was a lot more interesting (especially the bit about how traffic jams form).

____________
The underlying simplicity from which chaos and complexity emerge - simple laws, non-linearity, sensitivity to initial conditions and feedback are what make the world tick.

It is the absence of chaos in the changing obliquity (angle of tilt) thanks to ...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Bryan Higgs marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: science, physics, mathematics, biology, favorites

I have many John Gribbin books, and have enjoyed every one of them so far.

I found it interesting that this book covers material such as the emergence of life, chaos theory, thermodynamics and the arrow of time, and much more. I have read books on the arrow of time, and found them less satisfying than this one. I have read Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth", which powerfully argues for Evolution, but I found parts of this book to be more interesting than Dawkins' descriptions.

This book ...more

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About John Gribbin

John Gribbin

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John R. Gribbin is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. The topical range of his prolific writings includes quantum physics, biographies of famous scientists, human evolution, the origins of the universe, climate change and global warming. His also writes science fiction.

John Gribbin graduated with his bachelor's degree in John R. Gribbin is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. The topical range of his prolific writings includes quantum physics, biographies of famous scientists, human evolution, the origins of the universe, climate change and global warming. His also writes science fiction.

John Gribbin graduated with his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Sussex in 1966. Gribbin then earned his master of science (M.Sc.) degree in astronomy in 1967, also from the Univ. of Sussex, and he earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge (1971).

In 1968, Gribbin worked as one of Fred Hoyle's research students at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, and wrote a number of stories for New Scientist about the Institute's research and what were eventually discovered to be pulsars.

In 1974, Gribbin published, along with Stephen Plagemann, a book titled The Jupiter Effect, that predicted that the alignment of the planets in quadrant on one side of the Sun on March 10, 1982 would cause gravitational effects that would trigger earthquakes in the San Andreas fault, possibly wiping out Los Angeles and its suburbs. Gribbin repudiated The Jupiter Effect in the July 17, 1980, issue of New Scientist magazine in which he stated that he had been "too clever by half".

In 1984, Gribbin published In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality, the book that he is best known for, which continues to sell well 28 years after publication. It has been described as among the best of the first wave of physics popularisations preceding Stephen Hawking's multi-million-selling A Brief History of Time. Gribbin's book has been cited as an example of how to revive an interest in the study of mathematics.

In 2006, Gribbin took part in a BBC radio 4 broadcast as an "expert witness". Presenter Matthew Parris discussed with Professor Kathy Sykes and Gribbin whether Einstein "really was a 'crazy genius' ".

At the 2009 World Conference of Science Journalists, the Association of British Science Writers presented Gribbin with their Lifetime Achievement award. ...more

Books by John Gribbin

In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality

Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries

The Scientists: A History of Science Told Through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors

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“Earth as our home in space, a single blue-white oasis of life surrounded by a black desert.” — 1 likes

“As I understood it, what really mattered was simply that some systems (‘system’ is just a jargon word for anything, like a swinging pendulum, or the Solar System, or water dripping from a tap) are very sensitive to their starting conditions, so that a tiny difference in the initial ‘push’ you give them causes a big difference in where they end up, and there is feedback, so that what a system does affects its own behaviour.” — 0 likes

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