Branches - Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts

✍ Scribed by Philip Ball

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 236
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

As part of a trilogy of books exploring the science of patterns in nature, acclaimed science writer Philip Ball here looks at the form and growth of branching networks in the natural world, and what we can learn from them.Many patterns in nature show a branching form - trees, river deltas, blood vessels, lightning, the cracks that form in the glazing of pots. These networks share a peculiar geometry, finding a compromise between disorder and determinism, though some, like the hexagonal snowflake or the stones of the Devil's Causeway fall into a rigidly ordered structure. Branching networks are found at every level in biology - from the single cell to the ecosystem. Human-made networks too can come to share the same features, and if they don't, then it might be profitable to make them do so: nature's patterns tend to arise from economical solutions.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Branches - Nature’s Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Branching......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Preface and acknowledgements......Page 10
1. A Winter’s Tale: The Six-Pointed Snowflake......Page 12
Kepler’s balls......Page 15
Flakes frozen on film......Page 21
Endless branches......Page 25
The joy of six......Page 30
How the right arm knows what the left arm is doing......Page 32
2. Tenuous Monsters: Shapes between Dimensions......Page 38
Organic rocks......Page 39
Deposit at your nearest branch......Page 42
What’s in a branch?......Page 46
Fractals everywhere?......Page 51
Squeeze patterns......Page 56
Life in the colonies......Page 62
Invasion of the mutants......Page 68
Urban sprawl......Page 72
3. Just for the Crack: Clean Breaks and Ragged Ruptures......Page 82
Why things break......Page 86
Jagged edge......Page 90
A matter of chance......Page 95
Patterns in the dry season......Page 101
The devil’s honeycomb......Page 107
4. Water Ways: Labyrinths in the Landscape......Page 112
Scaling up streams......Page 115
Invasion of the highlands......Page 118
The best of all worlds......Page 122
It’s sedimentary......Page 126
What’s left......Page 130
Carried away......Page 136
Inverted icicles......Page 139
5. Tree and Leaf: Branches in Biology......Page 142
Scaling up......Page 148
Webs of life......Page 154
6. Web Worlds: Why We’re All in This Together......Page 161
All the world’s a stage......Page 163
The rich get richer......Page 173
World of webs......Page 179
Searching the web......Page 182
Communication breakdown......Page 187
Epilogue. The Threads of the Tapestry: Principles of Pattern......Page 191
Competing forces......Page 193
Symmetry breaking......Page 196
Non-equilibrium......Page 197
Dissipative structures......Page 200
Instabilities, thresholds, and bifurcations......Page 201
The solutions reveal more than the equations......Page 205
Pattern selection......Page 207
Defects and boundaries......Page 211
Correlations and critical points......Page 213
Power laws and scaling......Page 216
The role of entropy production......Page 217
Life itself......Page 220
Appendix 1: The Hele-Shaw Cell......Page 221
Bibliography......Page 223
Index......Page 228
Color Plates......Page 233