Scan barcode
lakmus's review
5.0
This book will make being stuck in traffic jams exciting. Because suddenly, you are not bored to death in a smelly car, you are participating in an act of sync. It's basically like being one with nature and hugging trees.
On a more serious note, this is one of the most exciting popsci books I've read. In fact so exciting, I am actually kind of keen to go study up on math a bit more, because for the first time ever it looks (a) relevant to important and cool things (like fireflies and brains, of course, my favourite brains!), (b) not hellishly daunting.
The book is not about math per se, but the author shares many anecdotes from the lives of physicists and mathematicians who worked on problems related to chaos and sync and for the first time ever it seems to me the same kind of process as all other science (afaik) is done: it's messy and creative and you don't really know what you are doing, but you just gotta (for some reason) repeatedly plunge yourself into the same problem day after day trying to figure it out.
"Sync" perhaps could be recommended to high-schoolers starting to think math was invented specifically to torture children to death by tedium.
On a more serious note, this is one of the most exciting popsci books I've read. In fact so exciting, I am actually kind of keen to go study up on math a bit more, because for the first time ever it looks (a) relevant to important and cool things (like fireflies and brains, of course, my favourite brains!), (b) not hellishly daunting.
The book is not about math per se, but the author shares many anecdotes from the lives of physicists and mathematicians who worked on problems related to chaos and sync and for the first time ever it seems to me the same kind of process as all other science (afaik) is done: it's messy and creative and you don't really know what you are doing, but you just gotta (for some reason) repeatedly plunge yourself into the same problem day after day trying to figure it out.
"Sync" perhaps could be recommended to high-schoolers starting to think math was invented specifically to torture children to death by tedium.
uhambe_nami's review
5.0
The spectacle of synchrony in nature is one of those mysteries that strike a chord in us. Fireflies blinking on and off in unison. Schools of fish moving gracefully as if they were only one. Pacemaker cells in a heart working all together to make that heart beat. Menstrual cycles of female roommates and co-workers starting to match each other over time (yes, it's true!) And then there's the synchronization between things that aren't even alive: photons that align to form a laser beam; electrons marching in step in a superconductor; the moon turning on its axis at precisely the same rate as it circles the earth; and pendulum clocks that hang next to each other adjusting their periodic swaying, as Christiaan Huygens observed, "in a kind of sympathy".
Mindless, lifeless things can sync spontaneously, says Steven Strogatz, because the capacity for sync does not depend on intelligence, or life, or natural selection. It springs from the deepest source of all: the laws of mathematics and physics. Using math, Strogatz shows why synchrony is likely to happen in nature, and why in some cases it is inevitable. This is wonderful, fascinating stuff, and perhaps the best part of all is that there is still so much more to discover. We can't explain it all, admits Strogatz in the end: maybe we instinctively realize that if we ever find the source of spontaneous order, we will have discovered the secret of the universe.
Yes, maybe.
Mindless, lifeless things can sync spontaneously, says Steven Strogatz, because the capacity for sync does not depend on intelligence, or life, or natural selection. It springs from the deepest source of all: the laws of mathematics and physics. Using math, Strogatz shows why synchrony is likely to happen in nature, and why in some cases it is inevitable. This is wonderful, fascinating stuff, and perhaps the best part of all is that there is still so much more to discover. We can't explain it all, admits Strogatz in the end: maybe we instinctively realize that if we ever find the source of spontaneous order, we will have discovered the secret of the universe.
Yes, maybe.
davidsteinsaltz's review
5.0
Strogatz is one of the great applied mathematicians of our time. This book is probably the one I would recommend to someone (if there were anyone) who wanted to know what applied mathematics is about, and how it actually works.
paulusm's review against another edition
4.0
Well structured and written, Stogatz makes complex ideas on the behaviour of physical and biological systems intelligible through use of analogy. Enjoyed the chapter on small world networks.
erikars's review
4.0
This book provides an introduction to synchronization in as detailed a way as can be expected without actually delving into the mathematics. Sync is order that arises without centralized intelligence. Yet in a universe driven by entropy how can order arise from chaos? The answer is that in non-linear systems, systems where the change in the output is not proportional to the change in the input, self organizing behavior can emerge. This book delves into what that means.
The first two chapters were my highlights. They delve into how synchronization can be predicted and modeled using systems of coupled oscillators. Chapters five, seven, and nine are also fascinating insights into the mathematics of sync. The rest of the chapters, as well as those chapters, cover sync over a broad array of domains from sleep to lasers to the electric grid to human thought and physiology. The grab bag was interesting but it was the underlying mathematics which really fascinated me. Thus my follow-up purchase of Strogatz's textbook Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering. :-)
The first two chapters were my highlights. They delve into how synchronization can be predicted and modeled using systems of coupled oscillators. Chapters five, seven, and nine are also fascinating insights into the mathematics of sync. The rest of the chapters, as well as those chapters, cover sync over a broad array of domains from sleep to lasers to the electric grid to human thought and physiology. The grab bag was interesting but it was the underlying mathematics which really fascinated me. Thus my follow-up purchase of Strogatz's textbook Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering. :-)