Complexity Everday Life

Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, the review character of this monograph sets it apart from specialized journals. The editor is advised by a first-class board of international scientists, such that the carefully selected and invited contributions represent the latest and most relevant findings. The resulting review enables both researchers and newcomers in life science, physics, and chemistry to access the most important results in this field, using a common language.

In May 1984 the Swedish Council for Scientific Research convened a small group of investigators at the scientific research station at Abisko, Sweden, for the purpose of examining various conceptual and mathematical views of the evolution of complex systems. The stated theme of the meeting was deliberately kept vague, with only the purpose of discussing alternative mathematically based approaches to the modeling of evolving processes being given as a guideline to the participants. In order to limit the scope to some degree, it was decided to emphasize living rather than nonliving processes and to invite participants from a range of disciplinary specialities spanning the spectrum from pure and applied mathematics to geography and analytic philosophy.