This volume contains a series of articles which give simple expositions of the fundamental ideas behind chaos theory, and discusses a wide variety of applications. The areas covered range from physics to biology, with individual chapters on chemistry, the weather, quantum mechanics and engineering. The book portrays the excitement of the contributors, working at the forefront of this new area of science. It also details the latest developments in the different fields. The text is accessible to the non-specialist, but also includes technical details. "The Nature of Chaos" is an edited and updated version of a series of lectures given in Oxford entitled "Chaos and related nonlinear phenomena". The course was interdisciplinary and focused on the uses and applications of ideas from dynamical systems theory.