N Ananthkrishnan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Bombay. He is presently Visiting Assistant Professor of Aeronautics at Caltech, USA on leave from IIT Bombay. His main research interest lies in the use of bifurcation methods for the modeling, analysis, and control of nonlinear dynamical systems, especially the flight dynamics of combat aircraft.

Tuhin Sahai is an undergraduate student in the fourth year of the dual degree program in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Mumbai.

This article uses the logistic map as an example to illustrate the vagaries that afflict a chaotic attractor in the course of its progress along a path of varying parameter. Several critical junctures, called crises, are encountered, where the chaotic attractor either goes boom or bust!

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Address for Correspondence
N Ananthakrishnan & Tuhin Sahai
Applied Nonlinear Dynamics & Chaos Lab
Department of Aerospace Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,
Powai, Mumbai 400076, India. Email:akn@aero.iitb.ernet.in sahai7da@ccs.iitb.ernet.in