Crashes, Crises, and Calamities How We Can Use Science to Read the Early-Warning Signs

About this book

Why do certain civilizations, societies, and ecosystems collapse? How does the domino effect relate to the credit crunch? When can mathematics help explain marriage? And how on earth do toads predict earthquakes? The future is uncertain. But science can help foretell what lies ahead. Drawing on ecology and biology, math and physics, Crashes, Crises, and Calamities offers four fundamental tools that scientists and engineers use to forecast the likelihood of sudden change: stability, catastrophe, complexity, and game theories.

In accessible prose, Len Fisher demonstrates how we can foresee and manage events that might otherwise catch us by surprise. At the cutting edge of science, Fisher helps us find ways to act before a full-fledged catastrophe is upon us. Crashes, Crises, and Calamities is a witty and informative exploration of the chaos, complexity, and patterns of our daily lives.

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Biography

Len Fisher, Ph.D., is author of The Perfect Swarm, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Weighing the Soul, and How to Dunk a Doughnut, which was named Best Popular Science Book of the year by the American Institute of Physics. He has been featured in Newsweek, the Washington Post, and Scientific American. He splits his time between Wiltshire, and Blackheath, Australia.