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Think of a zebra's stripes, the complexities of a spider's web,
the uniformity of ocean waves and desert dunes, a flock of starlings wheeling
about in the evening sky, or spirals in a sunflower head... think of a snowflake.
These and other natural patterns have been recognized by scientists
for centuries, and they can all be accounted for mathematically. What Shape
is a Snowflake? shows how life on earth develops not simply from genetic processes,
but also from the principles of mathematics. It reveals how the similarity between
rows of waves and rows of sand dunes is more than coincidental. Starting with
the simplest patterns, each chapter looks at a different kind of patterning system
and the mathematics that underlies it. In doing so the book also uncovers some
universal patterns, both in nature and man-made, from the basic geometry of ancient
Greece to the visually startling fractals that we are familiar with today.
Elegantly illustrated, What Shape is a Snowflake? is
an illuminating and engaging vision of how the apparently cold laws of mathematics
find expression in the beauty of nature. Ian Stewart
is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He broadcasts regularly
on television and radio, and has written articles for Nature, New Scientist,
Scientific American and many other periodicals. He is the author or co-author
of over 60 books including the best-sellingDoes God Play Dice? (1990),
Fearful Symmetry (1992), The Magical Maze (1997), Life's Other
Secret (1998) and Nature's Numbers (1995), which was shortlisted for
the 1996 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize. In 1995 he was awarded the MIchael
Faraday Medal by the Royal Society for the year's most significant contribution
to the public understanding of science. |
