The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature - Couverture souple

Ball

 
9780198502432: The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature

Synopsis

Why do similar patterns and forms appear in nature in settings that seem to bear no relation to one another? The windblown ripples of desert sand follow a sinuous course that resembles the stripes of a zebra or a marine fish. In the trellis-like shells of microscopic sea creatures we see the same angles and intersections as for bubble walls in a foam. The forks of lightning mirror the branches of a river or a tree. This book explains why these are no coincidences. Nature commonly weaves its tapestry by self-organization, employing no master plan or blueprint but by simple, local interactions between its component parts - be they grains of sand, diffusing molecules or living cells. And the products of self- organization are typically universal patterns: spirals, spots, and stripes, branches, honeycombs. This book explains, in non-technical language, and with profuse illustrations, how nature's patterns are made.

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À propos de l?auteur

Philip Ball is an editor at Nature magazine.

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Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780198502449: The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0198502443 ISBN 13 :  9780198502449
Editeur : Oxford University Press, 1998
Couverture rigide