Ecology of order has been apart of the science of ecology from the very beginning. The chaos theory has been apart of the sciences for some time, but was just recently accepted by ecology. But when it was accepted ecologists studied it and observed ecosystems with this mindset and saw that this theory is very present in nature. Charles Elton once said, “The balance of nature does not exist and perhaps never has existed”. In this paper I will discuss both ecology of order and chaos and will present examples from both sides along with the ecologists that believed in each theory. I am arguing that while there is still some since of stability in our environment, as a whole the ecology of chaos theory seems to be ever present in our ecosystems.
Throughout the modern era scientists and mathematicians have believed the world and it’s various systems follow a linear order. Much like a clock ticking second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. The belief was predictable in nature, following a simple order. However, there are many unexplainable events that occur every second across the world that do not fit this model. The opposite theory by natural law is chaos. Ancient Greek philosophers believed Chaos was evil, it dwelled in the underworld among the dead, it was opposite of Gaia, the goddess of the earth that was seen as good and orderly. In 1961 scientist began to study the idea that they may have missed something big and that was ideas of chaos and how it related to weather, science and especially ecology.
The scientist Edward Lorenz identified what is known as the butterfly effect. Which states that a single flap of a butterfly wing could conceivably transform storm systems on the opposite side of the world. ...
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...orm that is anticipated and never amounts to anything, snowflakes that are each very different but experience the same thing, were also given examples human health and how doctors often don’t know what has gone wrong, and trivial things like bouncing a ping pong and not be able to determine where it will go. It goes on to say that science is often failing the test of stability. Many ecologists were realized that nature was more complex than they realized and that it would be nearly impossible to determine every aspect of the environment, and science.
While believers in the chaos theory did not completely undermine everything that the ecology of order stated they did for the most part agree that the best way to look at ecology was with a sense of chaos. The best way to look at these processes sometimes are to look at both sides; considering equilibrium and change.
The essay starts off by stating, “One could say that the dominant scientific world-view going into the 16th century was not all that “scientific” in the modern sense of the
“Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives.”(Crichton 313). Ian Malcolm’s words resolve the book, Jurassic Park, in a very absolute way. Throughout the book, Malcolm, spoke about chaos theory and his self proclaimed “Malcolm Effect” to explain his reasoning in his predictions. Ian Malcolm had predicted the demise of Jurassic Park even before its opening, as well as its multiple problems and difficulties. Malcolm’s theory is evidenced countless times throughout the story of Jurassic Park; dinosaurs are breeding, dinosaurs are escaping, and systems fail.
While discussing the unknown frontier that scientists must endure, Barry describes a “wilderness region” that is unfamiliar and new. He continues to say that scientists venture “through the looking glass” into a new frontier. These devices help to create familiar ideas that the audience will understand in an unfamiliar situation. A simile used to compare research to a “crystal” by explaining that “probing” was to “ precipitate an order out of chaos,” much like a crystalline structure forms an ordered structure. Finally, Berry implements a metaphor in order to describe what follows a discovery. He describes “a flood of colleagues” that “ pave roads over the path laid.” This metaphor describes how science continuously changes, one discovery after another while ultimately communicating the patience and curiosity a scientist must have. The culmination of these figurative devices teach a new way of an audience that is unfamiliar with the author's theme.
According to Edward Lorenz (founder of the Chaos Theory) chaos is the science of surprises, of the nonlinear and the unpredictable. It teaches us to expect the unexpected. Chaos Theory deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather, the stock market, our brain states, and so on. (Lorenz 1995: 187)
Order and chaos are two events that inhabit the world that surrounds us. Natural events, such as gravity, create order where our world has laws and principles. One the other hand, war, fighting, and disasters make up the chaotic aspect of our world. How both are found in this world we live in, the same two ideas of order and chaos, are found in Eamon Grennan’s “One Morning.”
Hayles, N. Katherine. Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science. Ithica: Cornell UP, 1990.
THESIS: Life on earth has been considered by some as a purposeful interaction tending toward ecological stability. However, when the scientific community led by James Lovelock tried to match this concept with science, it was (and continues to be) a dilemma.
the rather simple view of chaos evident in Laplace’s dream of a universal formula: Chaos was merely complexity so great that in practice scientists couldn’t track it,
It teaches us to expect the unexpected. A famous example of chaos theory, referred to as the "butterfly effect, “postulates that the beat of a butterfly's wing could trigger a breath of breeze
Randomization, in the form of mutations, provides genetic variation. Evolution itself is not entirely a random process, but the mutations that have appeared throughout history are. Because of this, one would argue that with the summation of many mutations over time, evolution would inevitably create more randomization within the system resulting in an increase in disorder. In an isolated system, the overall entropy would undoubtedly increase following a series of mutations. Because of natural selection (the idea that an organism that is better suited to its environment will survive and produce more offspring than those organisms who are not), it can be said that chance mutations are not the only driving force behind evolution, thus evolution is not entirely a spontaneous process (Williams,
The disaster theory, Gould claims, is an example of good science. It has testable evidence and has an impact on studies in other fields of science, it develops further and explains why the extinction of dinosaurs occurred simultaneously with other events. This theory suggests that a large comet hit the Earth sixty five million years ago, causing the cloud of dust to rise into the sky and to block sunlight. As a result, world temperatures went down significantly, the ice age bega...
Chaos Theory has made quite an impact on the modern world. Even in its infancy it has been a powerful tool in shaping popular thought of the natural world. Once dismissed as a theoretical science with no practical application, chaos theory has blossomed into an intricate and beautiful pattern, much like the fractals it deals with. Chaos theory is a complex combination of math and physics, but with its mastery comes a new era in the human understanding of the world around us.
This is so in the case of climate change. Climate change is a controversial and complex topic that has not seen a victor in the debate it has become. Many scientists are perplexed as to how some do not accept the science of the issue. For this reason, many in science shy away from the media’s attention. However, the issue of climate change was not always seen in this perspective. At the turning point of the twentieth century, climate change was as foreign to humans as cancer was during the early twentieth century. The ...
All over the world there are animals dying from national disasters and plants are dying from animals. So the predator - prey relationships have a big deal on the population on plants and animals. But with the predator - prey relationships both animals have a connection together because that animals and the plants can be controlled with a keystone species. The one that controls how the population of all the factors is the keystone species because the keystone species is the animal that keep everything in check with the population of the plants and animals. But if the keystone species die and can it affect the ecosystem strongly and a trophic cascade would happen. So living and Nonliving factors have a big effect on the population of the and
...t. The Chaos Game can be applied to create other fractals and shapes, and is a major part of an entirely separate area of study: chaos theory. The fact that the Sierpinski Triangle transcends the boundaries of fractal and number theory proves that it is an important part of mathematics. Perhaps the Sierpinski Triangle still holds secrets that, if discovered, will change the way we think about mathematics forever.