When Things Grow Many: Complexity, Universality and Emergence in Nature

This textbook introduces statistical mechanics for a wider audience (advanced undergraduate students and graduate students) including those who are not directly involved in traditional physics. Statistical mechanics is useful in many areas of science, both where the subject developed, such as chemistry, as well as more recent applications in biological and financial, linguistic, social and other fields. The book includes discussions of complexity, emergence, universality, self-organized criticality, power laws, and other timely topics.