Born in New York City, USA, Gleick attended Harvard College, graduating in 1976 with a degree in English and linguistics.

Gleick very effectively conveys the science, the excitement the early scientists working on it felt, and the challenges that faced them. Gleick's essays charting the growth of the Internet included the "Fast Forward" column on technology in the New York Times Magazine from 1995 to 1999 and formed the basis of his book What Just Happened. I am a bit biased in that I find this topic fascinating but ignoring that this book is very accessible, you don’t need to be qualified in maths to enjoy it!

This book was into the most extraordinary mathematics ever, but the wonderful author writing so clearly and simply made it all utterly understandable. In fairness, there was a long gap where I put this book down after having read the first half, so I recognize that I lost the continuity of the narrative. From Edward Lorenz’s discovery of the Butterfly Effect, to Mitchell Feigenbaum’s calculation of a universal constant, to Benoit Mandelbrot’s concept of fractals, which created a new geometry of nature, Gleick’s engaging narrative focuses on the key figures whose genius converged to chart an innovative direction for science. However there were many sections that bored me and aperiodic jumps in his focus that left me lost a bit.

So I got exactly what I was looking for and now I can talk about chaos theory Jurassic Park style, which is all I wanted. The book is hugely popular, always comes at first when you are looking for recommendations about chaos theory books. Numerous theories of Mitchell J Feigenbaum and D'arcy Thompson are discussed in an elaborate manner, while also taking into account their historical background.All-in-all it reads like pop-science with constant over-the-top enthusiasm in place of a clear, concise, solid explanation of what chaos is. It is interesting to contemplate how much of the themes of this book have migrated into the modern cultural consciousness.

Gleick's way of telling the stories makes the reader share in the wonder and incredulity of each pioneer as he stumbled upon this hitherto unguessed truth of nature. But I found this book even more engaging for the narrative tale of a moment in history -- a virtual paradigm shift in mathematical thought -- that happened in our lifetimes. This burn of the natural world, this magic of the unknown, is what draws me to read physics and philosophy as an absolute amature.

As much about the history of chaos theory and the scientists who pioneered it as the science itself.

I finally read the book that ought to have been required reading for freshman physics majors for the past 20 years! Disclaimer: I took chaos mathematics at school so I was reasonably familiar with most presented concepts, which could have made it a little more boring. Here he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterise many natural phenomena.

I bought this book because I wanted to be a little bit like the fictional mathematician and chaos theorist Dr. I was never put off by the 'technical' words, thoroughly absorbed the diagrams and as for the coloured designs. For new doctoral students, there were no mentors in chaos theory, no jobs, no journals devoted to chaos theory. His narrative is compelling, yes, the stories are interesting, sure, but he doesn't grab the central characters as well as a new journalist like John McPhee does.