This volume comprises the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Geilo, Norway, between 8-19 April 1985. Although the principal support for the meeting was provided by the NATO Committee for Scientific Affairs, a number of additional sponsors also contributed, allowing the assembly of an unusually large number of internationally rec ognized speakers. Additional funds were received from: EXXON Research and Engineering Co. IBM (Europe) Institutt for energiteknikk (NorwaY) Institut Lauge-Langevin (France) The Norwegian Research Council for Science and Humanities NORDITA (Denmark) The Norwegian Foreign Office The U. S. Army Research, Development and Standardization Group (Europe) The U. S. National Science Foundation - The Norwegian Council for Science and Letters The organizing committee would like to take this opportunity to thank these contributors for their help in promoting a most exciting rewarding meeting. This Study Institute was the eighth of a series of meetings held in Geilo on subjects related to phase transitions. In contrast to previous meetings which were principally concerned with transitions in ordered systems, this school addressed the problems which arise when structural order is absent. The unifying feature among the subjects discussed at the school and the link to themes of earlier meetings was the concept of scaling.

Fractals, Diffusion, and Relaxation in Disordered Complex Systems is a special guest-edited, two-part volume of Advances in Chemical Physics that continues to report recent advances with significant, up-to-date chapters by internationally recognized researchers.

Investigation of the fractal and scaling properties of disordered systems has recently become a focus of great interest in research. Disordered or amorphous materials, like glasses, polymers, gels, colloids, ceramic superconductors and random alloys or magnets, do not have a homogeneous microscopic structure. The microscopic environment varies randomly from site to site in the system and this randomness adds to the complexity and the richness of the properties of these materials. A particularly challenging aspect of random systems is their dynamical behavior. Relaxation in disordered systems generally follows an unusual time-dependent trajectory. Applications of scaling and fractal concepts in disordered systems have become a broad area of interdisciplinary research, involving studies of the physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology and engineering aspects of random systems. This book is intended for specialists as well as graduate and postdoctoral students working in condensed-matter or statistical physics. It provides state-of-the-art information on the latest developments in this important and timely topic. The book is divided into three parts: Part I deals with critical phenomena, Part II is devoted to discussion of slow dynamics and Part III involves the application of scaling concepts to random systems. The effects of disorder at the mesoscopic scale as well as the latest results on the dynamical properties of disordered systems are presented. In particular, recent developments in static and dynamic scaling theories and applications of fractal concepts to disordered systems are discussed.

This volume comprises the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Geilo, Norway, between 8-19 April 1985. Although the principal support for the meeting was provided by the NATO Committee for Scientific Affairs, a number of additional sponsors also contributed, allowing the assembly of an unusually large number of internationally rec ognized speakers. Additional funds were received from: EXXON Research and Engineering Co. IBM (Europe) Institutt for energiteknikk (NorwaY) Institut Lauge-Langevin (France) The Norwegian Research Council for Science and Humanities NORDITA (Denmark) The Norwegian Foreign Office The U. S. Army Research, Development and Standardization Group (Europe) The U. S. National Science Foundation - The Norwegian Council for Science and Letters The organizing committee would like to take this opportunity to thank these contributors for their help in promoting a most exciting rewarding meeting. This Study Institute was the eighth of a series of meetings held in Geilo on subjects related to phase transitions. In contrast to previous meetings which were principally concerned with transitions in ordered systems, this school addressed the problems which arise when structural order is absent. The unifying feature among the subjects discussed at the school and the link to themes of earlier meetings was the concept of scaling.

Despite an astonishing 100 million-fold range in adult body mass from bumblebee bat to blue whale, all mammals are formed of the same kinds of molecules, cells, tissues and organs and to the same overall body plan. A scaling approach investigates the principles of mammal design by examining the ways in which mammals of diverse size and taxonomy are quantitatively comparable. This book presents an extensive reanalysis of scaling data collected over a quarter of a century, including many rarely or never-cited sources. The result is an unparalleled contribution to understanding scaling in mammals, addressing a uniquely extensive range of mammal attributes and using substantially larger and more rigorously screened samples than in any prior works. An invaluable resource for all those interested in the 'design' of mammals, this is an ideal resource for postgraduates and researchers in a range of fields from comparative physiology to ecology.

This work dealing with percolation theory clustering, criticallity, diffusion, fractals and phase transitions takes a broad approach to the subject, covering basic theory and also specialized fields like disordered systems and renormalization groups.

The physics of atomic and molecular clusters is interesting from many points of view. These systems bridge the domains of atomic and molecular physics on one side and condensed matter physics on the other. Their properties may be dominated by their large surface-to-volume ratio, giving a unique opportunity to study the interplay between surface and volume effects. They may exhibit a discrete spectroscopy because of their finite size. A major thrust in the development of high-tech materials can be described as atomic-scale engineering. In this process, materials are assembled on an almost atom by atom basis in order to obtain useful properties not found in naturally-occurring substances.

These proceedings focus on future prospects as well as on the present status in some important areas of applied probability and mathematical biology. Some papers have educational intentions regarding the mathematical modelling of special biological situations. The workshop was the third one in Heidelberg dealing with stochastic modelling in biology, e.g., cell biology, embryology, oncology, epidemiology and genetics.