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Ubiquity: The Science of History . . . or Why the World Is Simpler Than We Thin
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- Buy It NowUbiquity: The Science of History . . . or Why the World Is Simpler Than We Thin
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eBay item number:126399255758
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Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN
- 9780609608104
- Publication Year
- 2001
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- Book Title
- Ubiquity : the Science of History... or Why the World Is Simpler than We Think
- Item Length
- 9.2in
- Publisher
- Crown Publishing Group, T.H.E.
- Genre
- Science
- Topic
- Physics / General
- Item Width
- 6.1in
- Item Weight
- 18.3 Oz
- Number of Pages
- 288 Pages
About this product
Product Information
Why do catastrophes happen? What sets off earthquakes, for example? What about mass extinctions of species? The outbreak of major wars? Massive traffic jams that seem to appear out of nowhere? Why does the stock market periodically suffer dramatic crashes? Why do some forest fires become superheated infernos that rage totally out of control? Experts have never been able to explain the causes of any of these disasters. Now scientists have discovered that these seemingly unrelated cataclysms, both natural and human, almost certainly all happen for one fundamental reason. More than that, there is not and never will be any way to predict them. Critically acclaimed science journalist Mark Buchanan tells the fascinating story of the discovery that there is a natural structure of instability woven into the fabric of our world. From humble beginnings studying the physics of sandpiles, scientists have learned that an astonishing range of thingsEarth's crust, cars on a highway, the market for stocks, and the tightly woven networks of human societyhave a natural tendency to organize themselves into what's called the "critical state," in which they are poised on what Buchanan describes as the "knife-edge of instability." The more places scientists have looked for the critical state, the more places they've found it, and some believe that the pervasiveness of instability must now be seen as a fundamental feature of our world. Ubiquity is packed with stories of real-life catastrophes, such as the huge earthquake that in 1995 hit Kobe, Japan, killing 5,000 peop≤ the forest fires that ravaged Yellowstone National Park in 1988; the stock market crash of 1987; the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs; and the outbreak of World War I. Combining literary flair with scientific rigor, Buchanan introduces the researchers who have pieced together the evidence of the critical state, explaining their ingenious work and unexpected insights in beautifully lucid prose. At the dawn of this new century, Buchanan reveals, we are witnessing the emergence of an extraordinarily powerful new field of science that will help us comprehend the bewildering and unruly rhythms that dominate our lives and may even lead to a true science of the dynamics of human culture and history.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Crown Publishing Group, T.H.E.
ISBN-10
060960810x
ISBN-13
9780609608104
eBay Product ID (ePID)
12038775204
Product Key Features
Book Title
Ubiquity : the Science of History... or Why the World Is Simpler than We Think
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Topic
Physics / General
Publication Year
2001
Genre
Science
Number of Pages
288 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
9.2in
Item Width
6.1in
Item Weight
18.3 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Qc6.4.C3b83 2001
Reviews
"I grabbed this book and turned the pages. Does Buchanan get it right? Does he really understand how this might change the way we look at the world? He does. This is the book I wish I had written." -Per Bak, author of How Nature Works "Ubiquity explains better than any previous book why many fields of the natural world and human life are unpredictable." -Financial Times (London) "There are many subtleties and twists in the story to which we shall come later in this book, but the basic message, roughly speaking, is simple: The peculiar and exceptionally unstable organization of the critical state does indeed seem to be ubiquitous in our world. Researchers in the past few years have found its mathematical fingerprints in the workings of all the upheavals I've mentioned so far, as well as in the spreading of epidemics, the flaring of traffic jams, the patterns by which instructions trickle down from managers to workers in an office, and in many other things. At the heart of our story, then, lies the discovery that networks of things of all kinds-atoms, molecules, species, people, and even ideas-have a marked tendency to organize themselves along similar lines. On the basis of this insight, scientists are finally beginning to fathom what lies behind tumultuous events of all sorts, and to see patterns at work where they have never seen them before." -from the Introduction
Copyright Date
2001
Target Audience
Trade
Lccn
2001-028365
Dewey Decimal
530/.01
Dewey Edition
21
Illustrated
Yes
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eBay item number:126399255758
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Most relevant reviews
- Sep 28, 2021
Good book Good value
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: dav1doo7
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