Far-from-equilibrium describes how some phenomena only take place when a system is far from its normal equilibrium state. Phenomena such as turbulence, earthquakes, fracture, riots, financial crises and life itself occur only when systems are pushed far-from-equilibrium and have very different characteristics to systems that are held within their normal single basin of attraction; their equilibrium.  The term was coined in the 1970s by Belgian chemist Ilya Prigogine and modeled on the phenomenon of Bénard cell formation within heated water. Here far-from-equilibrium refers to a type of dynamic equilibrium in which the state of a system is constantly changing with time due to an external energy (or matter) input. While much is understood about systems at or near equilibrium, we are just beginning to uncover the basic principles governing systems far-from-equilibrium.