Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does

Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature's awe-inspiring designs.

Unlike the patterns we create in technology, architecture, and art, natural patterns are formed spontaneously from the forces that act in the physical world. Very often the same types of pattern and form - spirals, stripes, branches, and fractals, say--recur in places that seem to have nothing in common, as when the markings of a zebra mimic the ripples in windblown sand. That's because, as Patterns in Nature shows, at the most basic level these patterns can often be described using the same mathematical and physical principles: there is a surprising underlying unity in the kaleidoscope of the natural world. Richly illustrated with 250 color photographs and anchored by accessible and insightful chapters by esteemed science writer Philip Ball, Patterns in Nature reveals the organization at work in vast and ancient forests, powerful rivers, massing clouds, and coastlines carved out by the sea.

By exploring similarities such as those between a snail shell and the swirling stars of a galaxy, or the branches of a tree and those of a river network, this spectacular visual tour conveys the wonder, beauty, and richness of natural pattern formation.

ISBN-13: 9780226332420

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Publication Date: 04-05-2016

Pages: 288

Product Dimensions: 5.10(w) x 12.00(h) x 3.60(d)

Philip Ball is a freelance writer and broadcaster, and was an editor at Nature for more than twenty years. He writes regularly in the scientific and popular media and has written many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and wider culture, including H2O: A Biography of Water and The Music Instinct. His book Critical Mass won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Ball is also the 2022 recipient of the Royal Society’s Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal for contributions to the history, philosophy, or social roles of science. He trained as a chemist at the University of Oxford and as a physicist at the University of Bristol, and he was an editor at Nature for more than twenty years. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Symmetry

Chapter 2 Fractals

Chapter 3 Spirals

Chapter 4 Flow and Chaos

Chapter 5 Waves and Dunes

Chapter 6 Bubbles and Foam

Chapter 7 Arrays and Tiling

Chapter 8 Cracks

Chapter 9 Spots and Stripes

Glossary
Further Reading
Index
Credits

 

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