Ubiquity : The Science of History or Why the World is Simpler than We Think.

Mark Buchanan

ISBN 10: 0297643762 / ISBN 13: 9780297643760

Published by The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, 2000

About this Item

The remarkable findings, in this book, heralds the advent of 'UBIQUITY', a science whose secret lies in the stuff of the everyday world. Combining literary flair with scientific rigour, Mark Buchanan tells the story of the maverick researchers who are exploring the law, their ingenious work and unexpected insights. He shows how this new universal principle will transform our understanding of the science of prediction and make it easier for us to manage and control the future.

Seller Inventory # 001302

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Ubiquity : The Science of History or Why the World is Simpler than We Think.
• Publisher: The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297643762
• ISBN 13: 9780297643760
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 630 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Scientists have recently discovered a new law of nature. Its footprints are virtually everywhere in the spread of forest fires, mass extinctions, traffic jams, earthquakes, stock-market fluctuations, the rise and fall of nations, and even trends in fashion, music and art. Wherever we look, the world is modelled on a simple template: like a steep pile of sand, it is poised on the brink of instability, with avalanches in events, ideas or whatever following a universal pattern of change. This remarkable discovery heralds what Mark Buchanan calls the new science of ubiquity , a science whose secret lies in the stuff of the everyday world. Combining literary flair with scientific rigour, this enthralling book documents the coming revolution by telling the story of the researchers exploration of the law, their ingenious work and unexpected insights. Mark Buchanan reveals how the principle of ubiquity will help us to manage, control and predict the future. More controversially, he claims that it may well contain the beginnings of a mathematics of cultural and historical change. Every decade sees a major scientific breakthrough that has implications that go way beyond science. Ubiquity is one of them. This book, the world s first on the topic, will change how we think about the world and our place in it. Chaos Disorder from order. Complexity Complexity from simplicity. UBIQUITY World has a natural rhythm : there is a mysterious archetypal organisation that works in the world at all levels and which gives rise to a universal pattern of change in groups of people, things or ideas.

About the Author

Mark Buchanan has a PhD from the University of Virginia. Formerly an editor at Nature and New Scientist, he is now a science writer whose articles have appeared in numerous professional and general science magazines including Scientific American and New Scientist.