What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision & purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear & companionable book leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity a broad set of efforts that seek to explain how large-scale complex organized & adaptive behavior can emerge from simple interactions among myriad individuals Based on her work at the Santa Fe Institute & drawing on its interdisciplinary strategies Mitchell brings clarity to the workings of complexity across a broad range of biological technological & social phenomena seeking out the general principles or laws that apply to all of them Richly illustrated Complexity A Guided Tour-winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science-offers a wide-ranging overview of the ideas underlying complex systems science the current research at the forefront of this field & the prospects for its contribution to solving some of the most important scientific questions of our time