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STEVEN H. STROGATZ and IAN STEWART work in the middle ground between pure and applied mathematics, studying such subjects as chaos and biological oscillators. Strogatz is associate professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his doctorate at Harvard University with a thesis on mathematical models of human sleep-wake cycles and received his bachelorÃs degree from Princeton University. Stewart is professor of mathematics and director of the Interdisciplinary Mathematical Research Programme at the University of Warwick in England. He has published more than 60 books, including three mathematical comic books in French, and writes the bimonthly… Mathematical Recreations column for Scientific American.

THOUSANDS OF FIREFLIES’ash in synchrony in this time exposure of a nocturnal mating display. Each insect has its own rhythm, but the sight of its …