In recent years multiscale methods have revolutionised the modelling and analysis of phenomena in a number of different disciplines. The ’multiscale’ paradigm typically involves a multiscale representation and then manipulation of that representation to achieve a desired goal. Practical applications include: modelling communications network traffic - such as queues on routers - and image compression. The JPEG 2000 image standard is based on wavelet compression. So is the FBI fingerprint database.