This book was written, to a not inconsiderable degree, on the basis of the course "The Problems of Modern Biophysics" which the author gives to the students and postgraduates of the Biophysical Department at Moscow University School of Physics. It is meant for those who have a sufficiently good background in physics as well as in biology. I have tried to make this book intelligible to a broader circle of readers, i.e., to physicists not competent enough in biology, and to biologists not competent enough in physics. I hope that I have succeeded. This book is neither a textbook nor a systematic...

This book contains the invited papers of the interdisciplinary workshop on "Stochastic Nonlinear Systems in Physics, Chemistry and Biology" held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF), University of Bielefeld, West Germany, October 5-11, 1980. The workshop brought some 25 physicists, chemists, and biologists - who deal with stochastic phenomena - and about an equal number of mathematicians - who are experts in the theory of stochastic processes - together. The Scientific Commitee consisted of L. Arnold (Bremen), A. Dress (Bielefeld), W. Horsthemke (Brussels), T. Kurtz (Madison),...

This book contains the invited papers of an international symposium on synergetics; which was held at Schlol3 Elmau, Bavaria, FRG, April 27 to May 1, 1981. At our previous meetings on synergetics the self-organized formation of structures in quite different disciplines stood in the foreground of our interest. More recently it has turned out that phenomena characterized by the word "chaos" appear in various disciplines, and again far-reaching analogies in the behavior of quite different systems become visible. Therefore this meeting was devoted not only to problems connected with the...

According to its definition, synergetics is concerned with the cooperation of indi- vidual parts of a system that produces macroscopic temporal, spatial or functional structures. A good deal of the volumes published within this series dealt with the formation of truly macroscopic structures which we can s. ee with our eyes. A common scheme could be developed to understand the formation of many patterns through self-organization. In particular, we have to use concepts which go beyond conventio- nal thermodynamics. New ideas became crucial. We have to study kinetic processes, and often few...

Synergetics may be considered as an interdisciplinary effort dealing with the gene- ral problem of how science can cope with complex systems. The preceding symposia on synergetics were devoted to systems of physics, chemistry and partly also biolo- gy and sociology. It was possible to develop adequate concepts to describe and even to calculate evolving macroscopic spatial, temporal, and functional structures which emerge through self-organization of the individual parts of the systems under con- sideration. This book contains the invited papers presented at the Symposium on the Synerge- tics...

This volume contains the papers presented at the International Symposium on "Synergetics - From Microscopic to Macroscopic Order", held at the Wissenschafts- kolleg z~ Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study Berlin), on July 4-8, 1983. Further- more, it contains a contribution of T. Ohta, who unfortunately could not partici- pate in this meeting, on the evolution of mUltigene families. The papers discuss the evolution and the function of ordered structures from small microscopic scales up to large macroscopic dimensions. On the one hand, these structures derive from physical or biological...

The 6th Kyoto Summer Institute devoted to "Chaos and Statistical Mechanics" was held from September 12 to 15, 1983, at the Research Institute forMathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, and at Hotel Kuniso. The meeting was aimed at clari fying various aspects of chaotic systems appearing in different scientific disci pl ines, critically examining related mathematical methods developed so far, thus preparing for possible breakthroughs, among others, for the opening of a new period of statistical mechanics of deterministic systems. The number of partici pants was 135, of which 24 were from...

This book contains all invited contributions of an interdisciplinary workshop of the UNESCO working group on systems analysis of the European and North American region entitled "Stochastic Phenomena and Chaotic Behaviour in Complex Systems." The meeting was held at Hotel Winterthalerhof in Flattnitz, Karnten, Austria from June 6-10, 1983. This workshop brought together some 20 mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, psychologists and economists from different European and American coun- tries who share a common interest in the dynamics of complex systems and their ana- lysis by...

The main aim of these lectures is to tri gger the interest of the restless under- graduate student of physical, mathematical, engineering, or biological sciences in the new and exciting multidisciplinary area of the evolution of "large-scale" dynamical systems. This text grew out of a synthesis of rather heterogeneous mate- rial that I presented on various occasions and in different contexts. For example, from lectures given since 1972 to first- and final-year undergraduate and first- year graduate students at the School of Engineering of the University of Patras and from informal seminars...

Self-organization of systems belonging to quite different discipl ines has been a central topic of synergetics since its beginning. I am therefore particularly plea- sed that Hans Ulrich and Gilbert Probst have not only undertaken to organize an interdisciplinary meeting on Self-Organization and Management of Social Systems, but have also edited these articles written by leading scientists after and based upon that symposium. While the previous volumes of the Springer Series in Synergetics were mainly de- voted to physical, chemical and biological systems, with only the book by W. Weidlich...