Chaos: Making a New Science

by James Gleick

FRACTAL CLUSTERS. A random clustering of particles generated by a computer produces a “percolation network,” one of many visual models inspired by fractal geometry. Applied physicists discovered that such models imitate a variety of real-world processes, such as the formation of polymers and the diffusion of oil through factured rock. Each color in the percolation network represents a grouping that is connected throughout. THE GREAT RED SPOT: REAL AND SIMULATED. The Voyager satellite revealed Jupiter’s surface is a seething, turbulent fluid, with horizontal bands of east-west flow. The Great Red Spot is seen from above the planet’s equator and also in a view looking down on the South Pole. Computer graphics from Phillip Marcus’s simulation present the South Pole view. The color shows the direction of spin for particular pieces of fluid: pieces turning counterclockwise are red, and pieces turning clock-wise are blue. No matter what the starting configuration, clumps of blue tend to break up, while the red tends to merge into a single spot, stable and coherent amid the surrounding tumult.