The Self-Made Tapestry
Pattern Formation in Nature
Philip Ball
Price: £35.00 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-850243-2
Publication date: 5 July 2001
296 pages, 16pp colour plates, numerous halftones and line illustrations, 246x189 mm
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Ordering |
Individual customers may:
order by phone, post, or fax.
Manufactured on Demand - stock will be supplied on a firm sale basis within 28 days
Teachers in UK and European schools (and FE colleges in
the UK):
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| Reviews |
| - '"Philip Ball has produced a superb book about patterns in nature, The Self-Made Tapestry
. From the ribbed desert sands to tree-form streaks of lightening, countless examples give rise to fascinating reflections on the astounding order that exists amid chaos. Lavishly illustrated, this is a stunning book."
' - The Sunday Times
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| Description | | - Lavishly illustrated exploration of nature's magnificent patterns and forms
- Accessible, entertaining style, assuming no prior scientific knowledge
- Ball is an experienced and successful popular science writer
| | 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 resemles 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. ^l 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 - give rise to spontaneous patters that are at the same time complex and beautiful. Many of these
patterns are universal: spirals, spots, and stripes, branches, honeycombs. Philip Ball conducts a profusely illustrated tour of this gallery, and reveals the secrets of how nature's patterns are made. |
Readership: General public: people with an interest in science and natural history. Undergraduates in biology, chemistry, physics, geophysics. Researchers/graduates in these fields
| Contents |
Foreward
Preface
1.
Patterns
2.
Bubbles
3.
Waves
4.
Bodies
5.
Branches
6.
Breakdowns
7.
Fluids
8.
Grains
9.
Communities
10.
Principles
Appendices
Bibliography
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| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
Philip Ball
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The specification in this catalogue, including without
limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations,
and month of publication, was as accurate as
possible at the time the catalogue was compiled.
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