This is a science book, intended for the general reader who is interested in science. The author is a physicist who is well-known for his development of the property called "self-organized Criticality", a property or phenomenon that lies at the heart of large dynamical systems. It can be used to analyse systems that are complicated, and which are part of the new science of complexity. It is a unifying concept that can be used to study phenomena in fields as diverse as economics, astronomy, the earth sciences, and physics. The author discusses his discovery of self-organized criticality; its relation to the world of classical physics; computer simulations and experiments which aid scientist's understanding of the property; and the relation of the subject to popular areas such as fractal geometry and power laws; cellular automata, and a wide range of practical applications. The book is readable without a science background--below the level of Scientific American.

神经科学在自然探索、临床治疗、智能技术以至社会生活等方面都具有重要意义，因而受到了越来越多的关注。本书全面阐述了目前神经科学在大脑的演化来源、发育过程、神经元网络功能运作、脑疾病与衰老、神经药物和神经调控技术等方面的理解，结合神经科学发展的历史，深入分析和探讨了神经科学和一般的生物学研究中若干基本的哲学问题，特别是深入讨论了神经药物和神经调控技术将会对社会生活和伦理造成的种种影响以及科学家和一般民众所应持有的态度。作为近十年来欧美出版的神经科学普及读物中最为深刻的一种，本书可以给高年级大学生、研究生以及其他领域的科研工作者作为神经科学的入门读物，也是对神经科学感兴趣的其他读者的恰当选择。