When trees fall, the trees that they had sheltered become exposed and are in turn more likely to be damaged, so gaps tend to expand downwind. 434 BC) to an extent anticipated Darwin's evolutionary explanation for the structures of organisms. The Hungarian biologist Aristid Lindenmayer and the French American mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot showed how the mathematics of fractals could create plant growth patterns. There is something so unbelievably hypnotic about watching all those little coils unfurl. Vortex streets are zigzagging patterns of whirling vortices created by the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid, most often air or water, over obstructing objects. Our mission: To tell stories collaboratively through your best photography and expert curation. [72][73] The skeleton of the Radiolarian, Aulonia hexagona, a beautiful marine form drawn by Ernst Haeckel, looks as if it is a sphere composed wholly of hexagons, but this is mathematically impossible. In the 20th century, the British mathematician Alan Turing predicted mechanisms of morphogenesis which give rise to patterns of spots and stripes. 287 BC) noted that plants "that have flat leaves have them in a regular series"; Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) noted their patterned circular arrangement. Fern-like growth patterns occur in plants and in animals including bryozoa, corals, hydrozoa like the air fern, Sertularia argentea, and in non-living things, notably electrical discharges. [68], Dunes: sand dunes in Taklamakan desert, from space, Wind ripples with dislocations in Sistan, Afghanistan, A soap bubble forms a sphere, a surface with minimal area — the smallest possible surface area for the volume enclosed. Further stress in the same direction would then simply open the existing cracks; stress at right angles can create new cracks, at 90 degrees to the old ones. [64] Wind waves are sea surface waves that create the characteristic chaotic pattern of any large body of water, though their statistical behaviour can be predicted with wind wave models. May 13, 2018 - Explore Jennifer Rowntree's board "NatureArt", followed by 101 people on Pinterest. When the slip face exceeds the angle of repose, the sand avalanches, which is a nonlinear behaviour: the addition of many small amounts of sand causes nothing much to happen, but then the addition of a further small amount suddenly causes a large amount to avalanche. The structures of minerals provide good examples of regularly repeating three-dimensional arrays. [69][70] Structures with minimal surfaces can be used as tents. [66], Barchans or crescent dunes are produced by wind acting on desert sand; the two horns of the crescent and the slip face point downwind.

Similar patterns of gyri (peaks) and sulci (troughs) have been demonstrated in models of the brain starting from smooth, layered gels, with the patterns caused by compressive mechanical forces resulting from the expansion of the outer layer (representing the cortex) after the addition of a solvent. ~Juvenal, Satires Quote2: Let us permit nature to have her way. Meanwhile, on the windward side, young trees grow, protected by the wind shadow of the remaining tall trees. In the natural world all around us, intricate and beautiful patterns are everywhere: In the way that plants branch out as they grow, in the way clouds form and dissipate, from vast mountain ranges to tiny grains of sand, similar patterns repeat themselves, over and over again. [22][23] Buckminsterfullerene C60: Richard Smalley and colleagues synthesised the fullerene molecule in 1985. This can be visualised by noting that a mesh of hexagons is flat like a sheet of chicken wire, but each pentagon that is added forces the mesh to bend (there are fewer corners, so the mesh is pulled in).[74].