We give an overview of our studies of spiral turbulence and spatiotemporal chaos in partial-differential-equation models for two excitable media: (a) the oxidation of carbon monoxide on Pt(110); and (b) ventricular fibrillation in mammalian hearts. Our characterization of spiral turbulence and spatiotemporal chaos in these models leads us to an efficient scheme for controlling such chaos. We discuss this scheme and its application for electrical defibrillation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.