Book Review: A New Kind of Science | Online by Stephen Wolfram

(Image: By Richard Ling - Own work; Location: Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=293495)

In 2002, Stephen Wolfram published A New Kind of Science (also known as NKS). It is based on the concept that relatively simple rules can create very complex systems. For the 20th anniversary, the book was made available free online: Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science | Online—Table of Contents (wolframscience.com).

Before jumping in to read a 1000-page book on science, I suggest reading a few warm-up articles to help understand NKS:

John Conway's Game of Life: Conway's Game of Life - Wikipedia

and

Rule 30 - Wikipedia (one rule of many based on NKS that produces interesting results - perhaps the pattern shown in the photo of the shell shown above).

NKS touches on many different branches of science, including computing, randomness, physics, and nature.

More on cellular automata: Triangular Automata.

Book Review - Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz

(Image: Infinite Powers — Steven Strogatz)

Who would think that one could write a book about calculus without having it filled with endless equations? Steven Storgataz, professor at Cornell University, accomplished this task masterfully in his 2019 book, Infinite Powers, How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe.

I wish I had had his clear explanations of calculus over forty years ago when I was a young student of mathematics. His book is filled with clear explanations and illustrations. He also has many applications in which calculus has been critical, such as the disease research, fingerprint analysis, space exploration, and music.