Chaos theory is a mathematical study of how a seemingly chaotic system can be dramatically affected by a very small change, somewhat like a domino effect with infinitely growing magnitude; a change with little weight can over time be amplified into something that controls the whole system.
It is for this reason why weather is hard to predict a long way into the future because there is an infinite number of small variables which over time can make fundamental changes to what the outcome is going to be like. This is often described as “The Butterfly Effect”. A butterfly can, in theory flap its wings with enough force to snowball and result in a storm rather than a calm, sunny day.
Jim Al-Khalili, investigates this great mystery in science and how a seemingly chaotic universe can create structured living organisms in The Secret Life of Chaos documentary film. It is a counter-intuitive investigation because the universe has been in a state of progressive entropy since the big bang as described in thermodynamics, despite this ordered objects have been created through evolution. How can this be? How can star dust eventually form into the human brain? How does order come from disorder? The Secret Life of Chaos hopes to answer these fundamental questions.
