Grégoire Nicolis

The aim of this book is to develop a unified approach to nonlinear science which does justice to its multiple facets and to the diversity and richness of the concepts and tools developed in this field over the years. Nonlinear science emerged in its present form following a series of closely related and decisive analytic, numerical and experimental developments that took place over the past three decades. It appeals to an extremely large variety of subject areas, but, at the same time, introduces into science a new way of thinking based on a subtle interplay between qualitative and quantitative techniques, topological and metric considerations and deterministic and statistical views. Special effort has been made throughout the book to illustrate the development of the subject by physical examples and prototypical experiments, and the mathematical techniques by reference to simple models. Each chapter concludes with a set of problems. . This book will be of great value to graduate students in physics, applied mathematics, chemistry, engineering and biology taking courses in nonlinear science and its applications, as well as to researchers and teachers involved in one way or another in this field.

Exploring Complexity: An introduction is an intriguing exploration into the new science of complexity. This provocative book surveys the wide range of complex phenomena arising in the framework of physicochemical and biological systems and in the global environment, defining the elements of a new scientific vocabulary - the vocabulary of complexity - and elaborating the tools for analyzing these problems efficiently. It breaks disciplinary barriers to consider issues beyond the realm of traditional physical science, including the dynamics of climatic change and the behaviour of social insects and human populations. Exploring Complexity incorporates many new discussions on topics such as chaos, attractors, and fractals. The authors offer innovative views on recent research into nonlinear systems, complexity, and chaos that might further challenge the laws of science.

The European Conference on Complex Systems, held under the patronage of the Complex Systems Society, is an annual event that has become the leading European conference devoted to complexity science. ECCS'12, its ninth edition, took place in Brussels, during the first week of September 2012. It gathered about 650 scholars representing a wide range of topics relating to complex systems research, with emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches. More specifically, the following tracks were covered:  1. Foundations of Complex Systems 2. Complexity, Information and Computation 3. Prediction, Policy and Planning, Environment 4. Biological Complexity 5. Interacting Populations, Collective Behavior 6. Social Systems, Economics and Finance This book contains a selection of the contributions presented at the conference and its satellite meetings. Its contents reflect the extent, diversity and richness of research areas in the field, both fundamental and applied.