No label defined (Q4382872)

(The original ed. (1992) was not reviewed.) This book in two volumes contains a very rich material. Keeping in mind modeling in mathematics (i.e., ``the rules of reality'', see the first introductory chapter), the author proposes a nice and interesting promenade from catastrophes and dynamics to cellular automata and patterns, from order to chaos, turbulence and fractals. The readers can either go directly to their favorite field of research, and they will be delighted to see their familiar objects described in simple but precise and very well documented terms; or they can go to chapters in fields they only know superficially, and they will find that things were (may be) not that complicated. And the author's talent might well convince them to study in more detail a subject they almost ignored before. Furthermore, a large number of applications to ``reality'' are given: from biology to economics, from physics to genetics, from ecology to the study of populations. Exercises, notes and references confirm that this book is precise, useful and nice. For Part II see Zbl 0896.00002.