Table Of ContentNature’s Patterns
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Nature’s
Patterns
A Tapestry in Three Parts
Philip Ball
Nature’s Patterns is a trilogy composed of
Shapes, Flow, and Branches
1
3
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Branching
S
EEINGthesplayed,forkingchannelsofrivers,naturalphilosophers
were reminded of veins and arteries. These in turn speak of
trees—andwhynot,forallarenetworksthatdistributevitalfluids.
Whataretherulesthatmakebranches?Whydoesalightningboltseek
many routes from heaven to earth, or a crack begin to wander and
divide? Branching forms find a compromise between disorder and
determinism:theyhintatanewandpeculiargeometry.Yetsometimes
order reasserts itself, as when the arms of snowflakes insist on their
hexagonality.Andifbranchesreunite,theloopsformawebthatoffers
manyroutestothesamedestination.Navigationanddisseminationon
suchnetworksthendependsonthepatternofconnections.
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Contents
Prefaceandacknowledgements ix
1: AWinter’sTale 1
TheSix-PointedSnowflake
2: TenuousMonsters 27
ShapesbetweenDimensions
3: JustFortheCrack 71
CleanBreaksandRaggedRuptures
4: WaterWays 101
LabyrinthsintheLandscape
5: TreeandLeaf 131
BranchesinBiology
6: WebWorlds 150
WhyWe’reAllinThisTogether
Epilogue: TheThreadsoftheTapestry 180
PrinciplesofPattern
Appendix 210
Bibliography 212
Index 217
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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
