Reductionism — the idea that understanding the parts help understand the whole — has helped science flourish since the days of Descartes and Galileo.
Along comes another idea that sometimes understanding the parts do not help in working out the whole.
For example: the water that makes the weather, the cells that join up to create life forms or the shops that build the economy.
This idea is complexity, a new science that has the audacity to bring snowflakes, pendulums and viruses into the same conversation.
In this book, we step through the landmarks that have built the science and the problems it seeks to tackle, knowing that there are some things that can never be precisely measured or predicted.
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