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List Price: £40.00
Our Price: £25.37
Author:
Stephen Wolfram
By Wolfram Media Inc
Physics and computer science genius Stephen Wolfram, sets his sights on a daunting goal: understanding the universe. A New Kind of Science is a gorgeous, 1,280-page tome more than a decade in the making. With patience, insight, and self-confidence to spare, Wolfram outlines a fundamental new way of modelling complex systems. On the frontier of complexity science since he was a boy, Wolfram is a champion of cellular automata--256 "programs" governed by simple non-mathematical rules. He points out that even the most complex equations fail to accurately model biological systems, but the simplest cellular automata can produce results straight out of nature--tree branches, stream eddies, and leopard spots, for instance. The graphics in A New Kind of Science show striking resemblance to the patterns we see in nature every day. Wolfram wrote the book in a distinct style meant to make it easy to read, even for non-techies; a basic familiarity with logic is helpful but not essential. Readers will find themselves swept away by the elegant simplicity of Wolfram's ideas and the accidental artistry of the cellular automaton models. Whether or not Wolfram's revolution ultimat...
 Fascinating ideas, 2006-10-19
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.
List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £9.37
Author:
Claverie, JeanMichel Ph. D., Notredame, Cedric Ph.D.
By John Wiley & Sons
 Clear and informative, 2005-12-26
So much of the information is this field (and indeed some of the applications which have been developed) seems almost intentially convoluted and difficult to understand. This book gives a very good overview of some of the more common programs that one will need to use if one is starting bioinformatics research in a way that is practical and easy understand. Despite the title, the authors have done some good work in the field (I use Notredame's T-Coffee alignment program often) and are credible authorities in this area.
List Price: £65.00
Our Price: £61.73
Author:
O. Diekmann, J. A. P. Heesterbeek
By John Wiley & Sons
Excellent, A must for mathematician and edidemiologists, 2001-01-23
I got hold of this book via one of the authors about two years ago when I first began working on disease modeling. It's a excellent book, well written, easy to follow and the discussions in each chapter are both intriguing and sensible. This books is aimed at biologists and epidemiologists who wish to work with mathematical models, but don't understand the various complexity that mathematicians sometimes go in to.It is divided into three sections, Part I being the most important for nearly all readers. This is an introduction to modeling and its fundamental concepts. Part II works on the theory, important concepts like the reproduction ratio are looked at in great detail here. Finally Part III is elaborations to nearly all the exercises. I particularly like this section as the answers are given in both mathematical equations and words, so it is clear to see what is going on. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a vague interest in disease modelling. I've tried to think of something negative to say about this book, but I can't find anything. Perphaps the cover's a bit strange?
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