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Nature’s Patterns This page intentionally left blank Nature’s Patterns A Tapestry in Three Parts Philip Ball Nature’s Patterns is a trilogy composed of Shapes, Flow, and Branches 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #PhilipBall2009 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby ClaysLtd.,StIvesplc ISBN 978–0–19–923796–8 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Shapes T HERE is beauty to be found in regularity: the same element repeating again and again, typically with geometric order. There is no better example than the honeycomb, a miracle of hexagonal perfection. This sort of pattern is a lattice. On a leopard’s pelt, the lattice melts but a pattern remains: spots spaced at more or lessequaldistancesbutnolongerinneatrows.Thereisacomparable order in stripes and concentric bands: a succession rather strictly enforcedontheangelfish,butmorelooselyappliedinthemeandering, merging stripes of the zebra or of sand ripples. The means by which these natural patterns are constructed may tell us something about howthefarmorecomplicatedformsofanimalsandplantsarecreated by a progressive division and subdivision of space, orchestrated by nothingmorethansimplephysicalforces. This page intentionally left blank Contents Prefaceandacknowledgements ix 1: TheShapesofThings 1 PatternandForm 2: LessonsoftheBeehive 33 BuildingwithBubbles 3: MakingWaves 103 StripesinaTestTube 4: WrittenontheBody 151 Hiding,Warning,andMimicking 5: RhythmsoftheWild 200 CrystalCommunities 6: HowDoesYourGardenGrow? 226 TheMathematicsofaDaisy 7: UnfoldingtheEmbryo 257 TheFormationofBodyPlans Appendices 287 Bibliography 295 Index 303 This page intentionally left blank Preface and acknowledgements A FTER my1999bookTheSelf-MadeTapestry:PatternFormation inNaturewentoutofprint,I’doftenbecontactedbywould-be readers asking where they could get hold of a copy. That was how I discovered that copies were changing hands in the used-book marketforconsiderablymorethantheoriginalcoverprice.Whilethat wasgratifyinginitsway,Iwouldfarratherseethematerialaccessibleto anyone whowanted it. So Iapproached Latha Menon at Oxford Uni- versityPresstoaskaboutareprinting.ButLathahadsomethingmore substantialinmind,andthatishowthisnewtrilogycameintobeing. Quite rightly, Latha perceived that the original Tapestry was neither conceivednorpackagedtothebestadvantage ofthematerial.Ihope thisformatdoesitmorejustice. The suggestion of partitioning the material between three volumes sounded challenging at first, but once I saw how it might be done, Irealizedthatthisofferedastructurethatcouldbringmorethematic organizationtothetopic.Eachvolumeisself-containedanddoesnot depend on one having read the others, although there is inevitably somecross-referencing.AnyonewhohasseenTheSelf-MadeTapestry will find some familiar things here, but also plenty that is new. In adding that material, I have benefited from the great generosity of many scientists who have given images, reprints and suggestions. I am particularly grateful to Sean Carroll, Iain Couzin, and Andrea Rinaldo for critical readings of some of the new text. Latha set me moreworkthanI’dperhapsanticipated,butIremaindeeplyindebted to her for her vision of what these books might become, and her encouragementinmakingthathappen. PhilipBall London,October2007

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Patterns are everywhere in nature - in the ranks of clouds in the sky, the stripes of an angelfish, the arrangement of petals in flowers. Where does this order and regularity come from? It creates itself. The patterns we see come from self-organization. Whether living or non-living, scientists have
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Shapes: Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts (Natures Patterns) PDF

319 Pages·2009·11.42 MB·English
by  Philip Ball
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Nature’s Patterns This page intentionally left blank Nature’s Patterns A Tapestry in Three Parts Philip Ball Nature’s Patterns is a trilogy composed of Shapes, Flow, and Branches 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #PhilipBall2009 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby ClaysLtd.,StIvesplc ISBN 978–0–19–923796–8 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Shapes T HERE is beauty to be found in regularity: the same element repeating again and again, typically with geometric order. There is no better example than the honeycomb, a miracle of hexagonal perfection. This sort of pattern is a lattice. On a leopard’s pelt, the lattice melts but a pattern remains: spots spaced at more or lessequaldistancesbutnolongerinneatrows.Thereisacomparable order in stripes and concentric bands: a succession rather strictly enforcedontheangelfish,butmorelooselyappliedinthemeandering, merging stripes of the zebra or of sand ripples. The means by which these natural patterns are constructed may tell us something about howthefarmorecomplicatedformsofanimalsandplantsarecreated by a progressive division and subdivision of space, orchestrated by nothingmorethansimplephysicalforces. This page intentionally left blank Contents Prefaceandacknowledgements ix 1: TheShapesofThings 1 PatternandForm 2: LessonsoftheBeehive 33 BuildingwithBubbles 3: MakingWaves 103 StripesinaTestTube 4: WrittenontheBody 151 Hiding,Warning,andMimicking 5: RhythmsoftheWild 200 CrystalCommunities 6: HowDoesYourGardenGrow? 226 TheMathematicsofaDaisy 7: UnfoldingtheEmbryo 257 TheFormationofBodyPlans Appendices 287 Bibliography 295 Index 303 This page intentionally left blank Preface and acknowledgements A FTER my1999bookTheSelf-MadeTapestry:PatternFormation inNaturewentoutofprint,I’doftenbecontactedbywould-be readers asking where they could get hold of a copy. That was how I discovered that copies were changing hands in the used-book marketforconsiderablymorethantheoriginalcoverprice.Whilethat wasgratifyinginitsway,Iwouldfarratherseethematerialaccessibleto anyone whowanted it. So Iapproached Latha Menon at Oxford Uni- versityPresstoaskaboutareprinting.ButLathahadsomethingmore substantialinmind,andthatishowthisnewtrilogycameintobeing. Quite rightly, Latha perceived that the original Tapestry was neither conceivednorpackagedtothebestadvantage ofthematerial.Ihope thisformatdoesitmorejustice. The suggestion of partitioning the material between three volumes sounded challenging at first, but once I saw how it might be done, Irealizedthatthisofferedastructurethatcouldbringmorethematic organizationtothetopic.Eachvolumeisself-containedanddoesnot depend on one having read the others, although there is inevitably somecross-referencing.AnyonewhohasseenTheSelf-MadeTapestry will find some familiar things here, but also plenty that is new. In adding that material, I have benefited from the great generosity of many scientists who have given images, reprints and suggestions. I am particularly grateful to Sean Carroll, Iain Couzin, and Andrea Rinaldo for critical readings of some of the new text. Latha set me moreworkthanI’dperhapsanticipated,butIremaindeeplyindebted to her for her vision of what these books might become, and her encouragementinmakingthathappen. PhilipBall London,October2007

Description:
Patterns are everywhere in nature - in the ranks of clouds in the sky, the stripes of an angelfish, the arrangement of petals in flowers. Where does this order and regularity come from? It creates itself. The patterns we see come from self-organization. Whether living or non-living, scientists have
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