Branches

As part of a trilogy of books exploring the science of patterns in nature, acclaimed science writer Philip Ball here looks at the form and growth of branching networks in the natural world, and what we can learn from them. Many patterns in nature show a branching form - trees, river deltas, blood vessels, lightning, the cracks that form in the glazing of pots. These networks share a peculiar geometry, finding a compromise between disorder and determinism, though some, like the hexagonal snowflake or the stones of the Devil's Causeway fall into a rigidly ordered structure. Branching networks are found at every level in biology - from the single cell to the ecosystem. Human-made networks too can come to share the same features, and if they don't, then it might be profitable to make them do so: nature's patterns tend to arise from economical solutions.

ISBN 0199237980   Pages 240 ISBN13 9780199237982 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Oxford University Press   Weight (grammes) 419 Imprint Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Format Hardback   Height (mm) 223 Publication date 10 Sep 2009   Width (mm) 145 DEWEY 500.201185   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General

1		A Winter's Tale: The Six-Pointed Snowflake
2		Tenuous Monsters: Shapes between Dimensions
3		Just For the Crack: Clean Breaks and Ragged Ruptures
4		Water Ways: Labyrinths in the Landscape
5		Tree and Leaf: Branches in Biology
6		Web Worlds: Why We're All in This Together
		Epilogue: The Threads of the Tapestry: Principles of Pattern
		Appendix
		Bibliography
		Index

Wideranging, intelligent and non-dogmatic triology of books. Martin Kemp, Times Literary Supplement 'Branches' is a slim tome, generously illustrated with photographs, charts and mathematical models. Financial Times,

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