Fractals and Chaos Simplified for the Life Sciences / Edition 1

by Larry S. Liebovitch

Overview

Fractals and chaos are currently generating excitement across various scientific and medical disciplines. Biomedical investigators, graduate students, and undergraduates are becoming increasingly interested in applying fractals and chaos (nonlinear dynamics) to a variety of problems in biology and medicine. This accessible text lucidly explains these concepts and illustrates their uses with examples from biomedical research. The author presents the material in a very unique, straightforward manner which avoids technical jargon and does not assume a strong background in mathematics. The text uses a step-by-step approach by explaining one concept at a time in a set of facing pages, with text on the left page and graphics on the right page; the graphics pages can be copied directly onto transparencies for teaching. Ideal for courses in biostatistics, fractals, mathematical modeling of biological systems, and related courses in medicine, biology, and applied mathematics, Fractals and Chaos Simplified for the Life Sciences will also serve as a useful resource for scientists in biomedicine, physics, chemistry, and engineering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195120240
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/08/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	11.01(w) x 8.51(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Florida Atlantic University Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and the Department of Psychology

Table of Contents

Part I. FRACTALS1. Introduction2. Self-Similarity3. Scaling4. Dimension5. Statistical Properties6. SummaryPart II. CHAOS1. Introduction2. Phase Space3. Sensitivity to Initial Conditions4. Bifurcations5. Analyzing Data6. Control of Chaos7. SummaryPart III. OTHER METHODS1. The Big PictureReferencesIllustration CreditsIndex