About

Chaos theory is one of the three revolutions that physics underwent in the 20th century, alongside general relativity and quantum physics. The field was born out of Poincaré’s attempt to solve the three-body problem exactly and entered the mainstream with Edward Lorenz’s inadvertent discovery of chaos in weather models. Just like quantum physics, chaos theory poked a major hole in the paradigm of determinism. Nevertheless, it is not the same as pure randomness – there is order hidden in the chaos. In this talk, the speaker will delve into the fascinating history of how chaos was discovered, what distinguishes chaotic systems from non-chaotic systems, how scientists study chaotic systems and the fascinating applications of chaos to fields as diverse as physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology and economics.