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Patterns in Nature - Wikipedia
Patterns in Nature - Wikipedia
Patterns in Nature - Wikipedia
History
Early Greek philosophers attempted to
explain order in nature, anticipating
modern concepts. Pythagoras (c. 570–
c. 495 BC) explained patterns in nature like
the harmonies of music as arising from
number, which he took to be the basic
constituent of existence.[a] Empedocles
(c. 494–c. 434 BC) to an extent anticipated
Darwin's evolutionary explanation for the
structures of organisms.[b] Plato (c. 427–
c. 347 BC) argued for the existence of
natural universals. He considered these to
consist of ideal forms (εἶδος eidos: "form")
of which physical objects are never more
than imperfect copies. Thus, a flower may
be roughly circular, but it is never a perfect
circle.[2] Theophrastus (c. 372–c. 287 BC)
noted that plants "that have flat leaves
have them in a regular series"; Pliny the
Elder (23–79 AD) noted their patterned
circular arrangement.[3] Centuries later,
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) noted the
spiral arrangement of leaf patterns, that
tree trunks gain successive rings as they
age, and proposed a rule purportedly
satisfied by the cross-sectional areas of
tree-branches.[4][3]
Types of pattern
Symmetry
Spirals
Waves, dunes
Bubbles, foam
Cracks
Spots, stripes
Pattern formation
Alan Turing,[17] and later the mathematical
biologist James Murray,[81] described a
mechanism that spontaneously creates
spotted or striped patterns: a reaction–
diffusion system.[82] The cells of a young
organism have genes that can be switched
on by a chemical signal, a morphogen,
resulting in the growth of a certain type of
structure, say a darkly pigmented patch of
skin. If the morphogen is present
everywhere, the result is an even
pigmentation, as in a black leopard. But if
it is unevenly distributed, spots or stripes
can result. Turing suggested that there
could be feedback control of the
production of the morphogen itself. This
could cause continuous fluctuations in the
amount of morphogen as it diffused
around the body. A second mechanism is
needed to create standing wave patterns
(to result in spots or stripes): an inhibitor
chemical that switches off production of
the morphogen, and that itself diffuses
through the body more quickly than the
morphogen, resulting in an activator-
inhibitor scheme. The Belousov–
Zhabotinsky reaction is a non-biological
example of this kind of scheme, a
chemical oscillator.[82]
See also
Developmental biology
Emergence
Evolutionary history of plants
Mathematics and art
Morphogenesis
Pattern formation
Widmanstätten pattern
References
Footnotes
a. The so-called Pythagoreans, who were the
first to take up mathematics, not only
advanced this subject, but saturated with it,
they fancied that the principles of
mathematics were the principles of all
things. Aristotle, Metaphysics 1–5 , c. 350
BC
b. Aristotle reports Empedocles arguing that, "
[w]herever, then, everything turned out as it
would have if it were happening for a
purpose, there the creatures survived, being
accidentally compounded in a suitable way;
but where this did not happen, the creatures
perished." The Physics, B8, 198b29 in Kirk,
et al., 304).
Citations
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