We review some advances in the theory of homogeneous, isotropic turbulence. Our emphasis is on the new insights that have been gained from recent numerical studies of the three-dimensional Navier Stokes equation and simpler shell models for turbulence. In particular, we examine the status of multiscaling corrections to Kolmogorov scaling, extended self similarity, generalized extended self similarity, and non-Gaussian probability distributions for velocity differences and related quantities. We recount our recent proposal of a wave-vector-space version of generalized extended self similarity and show how it allows us to explore an intriguing and apparently universal crossover from inertial- to dissipation-range asymptotics.

We investigate the solvability of a variety of well-known problems in lattice statistical mechanics. We provide a new numerical procedure which enables one to conjecture whether the solution falls into a class of functions called differentiably finite functions. Almost all solved problems fall into this class. The fact that one can conjecture whether a given problem is or is not 𝐷-finite then informs one as to whether the solution is likely to be tractable or not. We also show how, for certain problems, it is possible to prove that the solutions are not 𝐷-finite, based on the work of Rechnitzer $[1–3]$.

We present an introductory overview of several challenging problems in the statistical characterization of turbulence. We provide examples from fluid turbulence in three and two dimensions, from the turbulent advection of passive scalars, turbulence in the one-dimensional Burgers equation, and fluid turbulence in the presence of polymer additives.