Visions of Nonlinear Science in the 21st Century

Book excerpt: Authoritative and visionary, this festschrift features 12 highly readable expositions of virtually all currently active aspects of nonlinear science. It has been painstakingly researched and written by leading scientists and eminent expositors, including L Shilnikov, R Seydel, I Prigogine, W Porod, C Mira, M Lakshmanan, W Lauterborn, A Holden, H Haken, C Grebogi, E Doedel and L Chua; each chapter addresses a current and intensively researched area of nonlinear science and chaos, including nonlinear dynamics, mathematics, numerics and technology. Handsomely produced with high resolution color graphics for enhanced readability, this book has been carefully written at a high level of exposition and is somewhat self-contained. Each chapter includes a tutorial and background information, as well as a survey of each area's main results and state of the art. Of special interest to both beginners and seasoned researchers is the identification of future trends and challenging yet tractable problems thatare likely,to be solved before the end of the 21st century. The visionary and provocative nature of this book makes it a valuable and lasting reference.