Nature by Numbers March 31, 2010
Posted by isotopeeffect in Biology, Math.trackback
Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.
The math behind the movie – the Fibonacci sequence, the Golden Ratio, Voronoi tilings, Delaunay triangulation.
For about 1100 pages on similar topics, see On Growth and Form, written in 1945 (2nd edition) by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, a pioneering work in mathematical biology. The color PDF is a (free) 75 MB download.
I do remember reading Jacob’s, “Finite State Machine Theory”, and then Cohen’s work on what drives phenology, his “constancy vs. contingency models” and how it fit so nicely with Baker’s work on seasonality. I guess that’s why I ended up a ecological physiologist. I get to play in so many realms…evolution, ecology, biochemistry, behavior, and mathematical models all allow me to see the push and pull of adaptations and selection pressures as well as the cost:benefit ratios of all living things.
Science IS the poetry of reality.
And by the way…I can’t believe we BOTH posted such beautiful musical and visual homages to science on the same day!