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  • Published: 27 August 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141042213
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

Deep Simplicity

Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life




'Gribbin takes us through the basics with his customary talent for accessibility and clarity' Sunday Times

The world around us can be a complex, confusing place. Earthquakes happen without warning, stock markets fluctuate, weather forecasters seldom seem to get it right - even other people continue to baffle us. How do we make sense of it all?

In fact, John Gribbin reveals, our seemingly random universe is actually built on simple laws of cause and effect that can explain why, for example, just one vehicle braking can cause a traffic jam; why wild storms result from a slight atmospheric change; even how we evolved from the most basic materials. Like a zen painting, a fractal image or the pattern on a butterfly's wings, simple elements form the bedrock of a sophisticated whole.

Synthesizing chaos and complexity theory for the perplexed, Deep Simplicity brilliantly illuminates the harmony underlying our existence.

  • Published: 27 August 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141042213
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

About the author

John Gribbin

John Gribbin gained a PhD from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (then under the leadership of Fred Hoyle) before working as a science journalist for Nature and later New Scientist. He is the author of a number of bestselling popular science books, including In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, In Search of the Multiverse, Science: A History and The Universe: A Biography. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex and in 2000 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

John Gribbin is one of today's greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books including In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Stardust, Science: A History, Deep Simplicity and The Fellowship. He is famous to his many fans for making complex ideas simple, and says that his aim in his writing - much of it done with his wife Mary Gribbin - is to share his sense of wonder at the strangeness of the universe with his readers. John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is currently Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. He also enjoys working on science-fiction stories in his spare time, and does most of his writing in a shed in his back garden.

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