The phrase edge of chaos was coined in the late 1980s by chaos theory physicist Norman Packard.[7][8] In the next decade, Packard and mathematician Doyne Farmer co-authored many papers on understanding how self-organization and order emerges at the edge of chaos.[7] One of the original catalysts that led to the idea of the edge of chaos were the experiments with cellular automata done by computer scientist Christopher Langton where a transition phenomenon was discovered.[9][10][11] The phrase refers to an area in the range of a variable, λ (lambda), which was varied while examining the behaviour of a cellular automaton (CA). As λ varied, the behaviour of the CA went through a phase transition of behaviours. Langton found a small area conducive to produce CAs capable of universal computation.[10][9][12] At around the same time physicist James P. Crutchfield and others used the phrase onset of chaos to describe more or less the same concept.[13]