SYNC: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order From Booklist The nonlinear dynamics of complex systems has been a most hip career field in recent decades. Publishers like to tap its professional popularity for a general audience--James Glieck's Chaos (1987) precipitated a trend leading up to such recent offerings as Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's Linked (2002). Strogatz nods to both predecessors in his tour of synchrony, which simply means ordered behavior through time, for example, the beat of a heart. Living things' exhibition of synchrony called forth the field of mathematical biology, whose principal figures and ideas occupy the first part of Strogatz's book; the second part delves into synchronic behavior of inanimate matter, such as superconductivity. Writing accessibly for the nonmathematical, Strogatz explains how "coupled oscillators" are central to synchrony; presents their ubiquity, from fireflies to vehicular traffic; and accents the personalities who make synchrony a creative frontier of science (or who went over to the dark side--paranormal research--such as Nobelist Brian Josephson). With a personable narrative voice, Strogatz delivers the goods for followers of complexity theory. Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved  Review "SYNC is a wonderfully lucid and thoroughly entertaining story of the emerging science of synchrony." -- Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Columbia University"A vivid, first-hand account of what it is like to be at the beginning of a scientific revolution." -- Focus"Beautifully written and breathtaking in scope, SYNC tells both a personal and a scientific story." -- Charles S. Peskin, Professor of Mathematics and Neural Science, New York University"Compulsively readable." -- Science"Describes dozens of sights and sounds that arise from collective, synchronized behavior . . . Delightful." -- Discover"Every now and then you come across a science book that's just fun and amazing to read." -- Leader-Post [Regina]"Inspiring . . . offers a real sense of what it's like to be at the beginning of Something Big." -- NewScientist.com"Offers a real sense of what it's like to be at the beginning of Something Big." -- New Scientist"Strogatz . . . is a first-rate storyteller and an even better teacher . . . SYNC is a great read." -- Nature               See all Product description