Complex systems: chaos and beyond. A constructive approach with applications in life sciences

摘要

The study of complex systems is emerging as the science of understanding the shade under nature's umbrella of irreducibility and nonlinearity. The tremendous breadth of this umbrella and the exquisite phenomena it covers both captivate and, at the same time, impede scientists from enjoying the converging efforts of those in other disciplines. In this sense, complex systems research can be likened to a black art with its practitioners using whatever available tool seems to decipher any aspect of the complex phenomena under study empirically instead of being guided by a universal complex systems theory.