Product Description
Patterns are everywhere in nature–in the ranks of clouds in the sky, the stripes of an angelfish, the arrangement of petals in flowers. Where does this order and regularity come from? As Philip Ball reveals in Nature’s Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts, this order creates itself. The patterns we see come from self-organization. Indeed, scientists have found that there is a pattern-forming tendency inherent in the basic structure and processes of nature, whether l… More >>
Shapes: Nature’s Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts
Tags: angelfish, clouds in the sky, petals, philip ball, regularity, self organization, shapes, stripes, tapestry, tendency
#1 by milford metallurgist on June 27, 2010 - 6:30 am
Ball takes a logical approach to explain the physical laws that govern shapes, and the evolutionary basis for the shapes. I believe the physical laws are ordered and our job as scientists is to uncover the mysteries and find the discoveries that are already there. It’s like Columbus didn’t discover America. It was always there, the Europeans just didn’t know it. The “Intelligent Design” and Creation people are right in that God just might be responsible for complicated shapes, but they have God intervening late in the cycle. He established the overall physical laws that living things follow to get their shapes. He didn’t intervene at the last minute to make a complex spiral sea shell. This approach reconciles the Science vs. God conflict very nicely. The Creationists have the right idea generally, but are too pushy in their approach. Besides, if I was God, I wouldn’t waste time diddling around with every little plant and animal, I would be more efficient and lay down the regular physical laws they should follow. Ball helpls understand the efficient God, not the detail freak God.
Rating: 4 / 5