The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature

Ball, Philip

ISBN 10: 0198502435 / ISBN 13: 9780198502432

Published by Oxford University Press, 2001

About this Item

The book is complete and readable, with all pages and cover intact. Dust jacket, shrink wrap, or boxed set case may be missing. Pages may have light notes, highlighting, or minor water exposure, but nothing that affects readability. May be an ex-library copy and could include library markings or stickers. Seller Inventory # BSM.LYWR

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in...

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 2001

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: acceptable

About this title

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.

About the Author:

Philip Ball is an editor at Nature magazine.