In 1957 Stephen Smale startled the mathematical world by showing that it is possible to turn a sphere inside out without cutting, tearing, or crimping. A few years later, from the beaches of Rio, he introduced the horseshoe map, demonstrating that simple functions could have chaotic dynamics. Despite his diverse accomplishments, Smales name is virtually unknown outside mathematics. One of the objectives of this book is to bring the life and work of this significant figure in intellectual history to the attention of a larger community.
In 2000, the American Mathematical Society published a biography of Professor Stephen Smale, who had recently retired from a prestigious career at the University of California, Berkeley. But in retirement, Professor Smale has continued his academic pursuits through the present day, resulting in numerous additional publications and honors in the past 20+ years. As part of the CityU Legacy Series, this book documents Professor Smale's time at City University of Hong Kong, during his first appointment as a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Mathematics from 1995-2001 as well as when he returned from 2009-2016. It also covers colorful and adventurous aspects of his life, including his impressive mineral collection and intrepid sailing and hiking trips to exotic locales. So that readers can experience the full extent of Professor Smale's notable life and work, the previous biography about him is included to provide a complete picture of this renowned scholar of international influence. "A fascinating and inspiring story of how Steve Smale, a bright yet seemingly unexceptional country boy ... became one of the most brilliant and in influential mathematicians on the planet." Lenore Blum Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Emerita Carnegie Mellon University "I first met Steve during a visit to Berkeley … I did not foresee that the visit would mark the beginning of a long-lasting relationship including, but going well beyond, mathematical collaboration." Felipe Cucker Emeritus Professor, Department of Mathematics City University of Hong Kong
Exposes the destruction of academic careers—and the complicity of educational institutions—in McCarthy's America The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis tells the true tale of a mathematician who found himself taking an involuntary break from chalking equations to sit opposite a row of self-righteous anti-Communist congressmen at the height of the McCarthy era. Courageously asserting the First Amendment to confront a system rapidly descending into fascism, Davis testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He became one of a small number of left wingers who served time for contempt of Congress. In this fascinating and disturbing narrative, author Steve Batterson takes a deep dive into extant archival records generated by the FBI, HUAC, the University of Michigan, and repositories holding the papers of former Supreme Court justices. He examines the plights of six faculty and graduate students—including three future members of the National Academy of Sciences—whose careers were disrupted by the anticommunist actions of a wide range of personnel at the University of Michigan. He focuses on the seemingly conflicting Supreme Court decisions on labor leader John Watkins and Vassar College Psychology instructor Lloyd Barenblatt. And he examines the role played in the trial by Felix Frankfurter, a longtime Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, close advisor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and co-founder of the ACLU. In the process, Batterson exposes the ways that McCarthy’s righteous emissaries relied on all kinds of institutions in 1950s America—from Hollywood studios to universities—to sabotage the careers of anyone with a trace of “Red.”
The Routledge International Handbook of Complexity Economics covers the historical developments and early concerns of complexity theorists and brings them into engagement with the world today. In this volume, a distinguished group of international scholars explore the state of the art of complexity economics, and how it may deliver new and relevant insights to the challenges of the 21st century. Complexity science started in 1899 when Henri Poincaré described the three-body problem. The first approaches in economics emerged somewhat later, in the 1980s, driven by the Brussels-Austin school. Since then, complexity economics has gone through numerous developments: departing from linear simplifications, applying physical algorithms, to evolutionary economics and big data. This book covers the basic principles and methods, and offers an overview of the various domains—ranging from diverse fields of productivity studies, agricultural economics, to monetary economics—as well as the current challenges such as climate change, epidemics and economic inequality where complexity economics can provide insight. It closes with a review of complexity political economy and policy. Offering a vibrant alternative to orthodox economics, this handbook is a crucial resource for advanced students, researchers and economists across the disciplines of heterodox economics, economic theory and econophysics.
Mathematics of Complexity and Dynamical Systems is an authoritative reference to the basic tools and concepts of complexity, systems theory, and dynamical systems from the perspective of pure and applied mathematics. Complex systems are systems that comprise many interacting parts with the ability to generate a new quality of collective behavior through self-organization, e.g. the spontaneous formation of temporal, spatial or functional structures. These systems are often characterized by extreme sensitivity to initial conditions as well as emergent behavior that are not readily predictable or even completely deterministic. The more than 100 entries in this wide-ranging, single source work provide a comprehensive explication of the theory and applications of mathematical complexity, covering ergodic theory, fractals and multifractals, dynamical systems, perturbation theory, solitons, systems and control theory, and related topics. Mathematics of Complexity and Dynamical Systems is an essential reference for all those interested in mathematical complexity, from undergraduate and graduate students up through professional researchers.
The book surveys how chaotic behaviors can be described with topological tools and how this approach occurred in chaos theory. Some modern applications are included.The contents are mainly devoted to topology, the main field of Robert Gilmore's works in dynamical systems. They include a review on the topological analysis of chaotic dynamics, works done in the past as well as the very latest issues. Most of the contributors who published during the 90's, including the very well-known scientists Otto Rössler, René Lozi and Joan Birman, have made a significant impact on chaos theory, discrete chaos, and knot theory, respectively.Very few books cover the topological approach for investigating nonlinear dynamical systems. The present book will provide not only some historical — not necessarily widely known — contributions (about the different types of chaos introduced by Rössler and not just the “Rössler attractor”; Gumowski and Mira's contributions in electronics; Poincaré's heritage in nonlinear dynamics) but also some recent applications in laser dynamics, biology, etc.
For much of the twentieth century scientists sought to explain objects and processes by reducing them to their components—nuclei into protons and neutrons, proteins into amino acids, and so on—but over the past forty years there has been a marked turn toward explaining phenomena by building them up rather than breaking them down. This collection reflects on the history and significance of this turn toward “growing explanations” from the bottom up. The essays show how this strategy—based on a widespread appreciation for complexity even in apparently simple processes and on the capacity of computers to simulate such complexity—has played out in a broad array of sciences. They describe how scientists are reordering knowledge to emphasize growth, change, and contingency and, in so doing, are revealing even phenomena long considered elementary—like particles and genes—as emergent properties of dynamic processes. Written by leading historians and philosophers of science, these essays examine the range of subjects, people, and goals involved in changing the character of scientific analysis over the last several decades. They highlight the alternatives that fields as diverse as string theory, fuzzy logic, artificial life, and immunology bring to the forms of explanation that have traditionally defined scientific modernity. A number of the essays deal with the mathematical and physical sciences, addressing concerns with hybridity and the materials of the everyday world. Other essays focus on the life sciences, where questions such as “What is life?” and “What is an organism?” are undergoing radical re-evaluation. Together these essays mark the contours of an ongoing revolution in scientific explanation. Contributors. David Aubin, Amy Dahan Dalmedico, Richard Doyle, Claus Emmeche, Peter Galison, Stefan Helmreich, Ann Johnson, Evelyn Fox Keller, Ilana Löwy, Claude Rosental, Alfred Tauber
With the thoroughness and resourcefulness that characterize the earlier volumes, she recounts the rich history of the courageous and resolute women determined to realize their scientific ambitions.
A History of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity covers the evolution of mathematics through time and across the major Eastern and Western civilizations. It begins in Babylon, then describes the trials and tribulations of the Greek mathematicians. The important, and often neglected, influence of both Chinese and Islamic mathematics is covered in detail, placing the description of early Western mathematics in a global context. The book concludes with modern mathematics, covering recent developments such as the advent of the computer, chaos theory, topology, mathematical physics, and the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem. Containing more than 100 illustrations and figures, this text, aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduates, addresses the methods and challenges associated with studying the history of mathematics. The reader is introduced to the leading figures in the history of mathematics (including Archimedes, Ptolemy, Qin Jiushao, al-Kashi, al-Khwarizmi, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Helmholtz, Hilbert, Alan Turing, and Andrew Wiles) and their fields. An extensive bibliography with cross-references to key texts will provide invaluable resource to students and exercises (with solutions) will stretch the more advanced reader.
This is the first truly comprehensive and thorough history of the development of mathematics and a mathematical community in the United States and Canada. This first volume of the multi-volume work takes the reader from the European encounters with North America in the fifteenth century up to the emergence of a research community the United States in the last quarter of the nineteenth. In the story of the colonial period, particular emphasis is given to several prominent colonial figures—Jefferson, Franklin, and Rittenhouse—and four important early colleges—Harvard, Québec, William & Mary, and Yale. During the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, mathematics in North America was largely the occupation of scattered individual pioneers: Bowditch, Farrar, Adrain, B. Peirce. This period is given a fuller treatment here than previously in the literature, including the creation of the first PhD programs and attempts to form organizations and found journals. With the founding of Johns Hopkins in 1876 the American mathematical research community was finally, and firmly, founded. The programs at Hopkins, Chicago, and Clark are detailed as are the influence of major European mathematicians including especially Klein, Hilbert, and Sylvester. Klein's visit to the US and his Evanston Colloquium are extensively detailed. The founding of the American Mathematical Society is thoroughly discussed. David Zitarelli was emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Temple University. A decorated and acclaimed teacher, scholar, and expositor, he was one of the world's leading experts on the development of American mathematics. Author or co-author of over a dozen books, this was his magnum opus—sure to become the leading reference on the topic and essential reading, not just for historians. In clear and compelling prose Zitarelli spins a tale accessible to experts, generalists, and anyone interested in the history of science in North America.
