This dependence on initial conditions, as chaos theorists call it, was also reflected in another aspect of the Minnesota experiment.

Equally alarming is the work of chaos theorists at some universities, who look for the method in mayhem.

A musical chaos theorist like Alfred Schnittke thrives on that dark circus of association.

Some chaos theorists believe that such trading is only a piece of a larger, possibly foreboding picture.

Similarly, chaos theorists suggest that the stock market's behavior does reflect underlying economic forces - but with time lags and patterns of oscillation that remain inscrutable.

Such artificial parallels are almost always illusions, chaos theorists say.

Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician and chaos theorist.

"Even chaos theorists are interested in locating patterns in the chaos," Mr. Lears said.

Vela, the narrator's previous wife, a beautiful Romanian chaos theorist.

We read the seismic patterns, but at best we discern what chaos theorists refer to as irregular regularity [source: Burns].