In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.
Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of scientific study and branch of mathematics. It focuses on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. These were once thought to have completely random states of disorder and irregularities. Chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnection, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals and self-organization. The butterfly effect, an underlying principle of chaos, describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. A metaphor for this behavior is that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas.
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American theoretical physicist. He is known for the work he did in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and in particle physics, for which he proposed the parton model. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga.
James Gleick is an American author and historian of science whose work has chronicled the cultural impact of modern technology. Recognized for his writing about complex subjects through the techniques of narrative nonfiction, he has been called "one of the great science writers of all time". He is part of the inspiration for Jurassic Park character Ian Malcolm.
Ian MacDougall Hacking was a Canadian philosopher specializing in the philosophy of science. Throughout his career, he won numerous awards, such as the Killam Prize for the Humanities and the Balzan Prize, and was a member of many prestigious groups, including the Order of Canada, the Royal Society of Canada and the British Academy.
Peter H. Gleick is an American scientist working on issues related to the environment. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water resources. Among the issues he has addressed are conflicts over water resources, water and climate change, development, and human health.
In the study of dynamical systems, the van der Pol oscillator is a non-conservative, oscillating system with non-linear damping. It evolves in time according to the second-order differential equation where x is the position coordinate—which is a function of the time t—and μ is a scalar parameter indicating the nonlinearity and the strength of the damping.
The History of Science Society (HSS), founded in 1924, is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science. The society has over 3,000 members worldwide. It publishes the quarterly journal Isis and the yearly journal Osiris, sponsors the IsisCB: History of Science Index, and holds an annual conference. As of January 2024, the current president of the HSS is Evelynn M. Hammonds.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a history book written by the American journalist and historian Richard Rhodes, first published by Simon & Schuster in 1987. The book won multiple awards, including Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. The narrative covers people and events from early 20th century discoveries leading to the science of nuclear fission, through the Manhattan Project and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The following events related to sociology occurred in the 1980s.
Edward Ott is an American physicist and electrical engineer, who is a professor at University of Maryland, College Park. He is best known for his contributions to the development of chaos theory.
Jagdish Mehra was an Indian–American physicist and historian of science.
Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker was a British mathematician, physicist, historian of science, and philosopher who authored three titles that remain in circulation over a century after their initial publications. His bibliography includes several books and over one hundred published papers on a variety of subjects, including mathematics, astronomy, mathematical physics, theoretical physics, philosophy, and theism. Whittaker's bibliography in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society categorises his publications into three categories: books and monographs, maths and physics articles, and biographical articles; the bibliography excludes works published in popular magazines like Scientific American. The bibliography includes eleven total books and monographs, fifty-six maths and physics articles, thirty-five philosophy and history articles, and twenty-one biographical articles. In the bibliography compiled by William Hunter McCrea in 1957, there are thirteen books and monographs and the same journal articles; McCrea counts all three volumes of A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity as separate books and excludes the same papers. Whittaker's contributions to Scientific American include two book reviews and a popular article on mathematics.
Charles Bixler Heiser Jr. (1920–2010) was a professor of botany, known as a leading expert on the sunflower genus Helianthus. He is also noteworthy as the author of a "series of popular books that did much to promote botany to the general public."
The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born is a biography of Max Born by Nancy Thorndike Greenspan that was initially published in 2005 by Basic Books. It was the first book-length biography of Born, a Nobel laureate and one of the founders of quantum mechanics. The book was critically acclaimed and was reviewed by Publishers Weekly, David C. Cassidy, Kurt Gottfried, Graham Farmelo, and Cathryn Carson, among others.
Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein is a two-volume reference work on the history of theoretical physics by Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach that was initially published in 1986 by the University of Chicago Press. The book was well received, and it won the 1987 Pfizer Award, given annually by the History of Science Society. In 2017, the duo released a revised and condensed version of the book through Springer International Publishing, titled The Second Physicist: On the History of Theoretical Physics in Germany. The authors also wrote the 1996 and updated 1999 biography of Henry Cavendish, originally titled Cavendish. The book was given the subtitle The Experimental Life in the revised version of 1999.
Nancy Guttmann Slack was an American plant ecologist, bryologist, and historian of science. She was the president of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society from 2005 to 2007.
Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality is a 1996 book by neuroscientist Simon LeVay on the scientific explanations for homosexuality.
Mary Elizabeth Barkworth is an American botanist and professor emerita at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays is a 1944 anthropological book by the Polish scholar Bronisław Malinowski. It was published posthumously, two years after Malinowski's death.
