A renowned science writer, Philip Ball lives in London. He worked for over twenty years as an editor for Nature, writes regularly in the scientific and popular media, and has authored many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and the wider culture. His most recent books include Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen and Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler.
"The most beautiful book of 2016."--Publishers Weekly "This
cofee-table book showcases the spots, stripes, spirals, and
fractals and other intricate patterns found in the natural
world."--Live Science "This captivating book is a collection of
stunning photographs that capture frequently repeating mathematical
patterns in nature. These images depict patterns in living things,
from pollen to animals, and in non-living things, from lightning to
landscapes. Images are accompanied by brief, but clear,
explanations for how these patterns can be generated by Fibonacci
ratios, suggesting they result from simple self-organization.
Excellent coffee table companion to the author's earlier Nature's
Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts series, which describe in
detail how physics and chemistry influence and interweave with
evolution (biology) to create patterns and symmetry in nature. This
book is a visual feast that can serve as a source of wonder and
inspiration for artists and naturalists as well as scientists."
--Forbes "Acclaimed English science writer Ball curates a visually
striking, riotously colorful photographic display of the most
dramatic examples of the 'sheer splendor' of physical patterns in
the natural world. He lightly ties the work together with snippets
of scientific history, using bits of physics, chemistry, and
mathematics to show that although patterns in living beings can
offer clear, functional evolutionary advantages, the small set of
design elements that we can see--symmetries, branching fractals,
spirals, flowing swirls, spots, and stripes--come from a basic set
of organizing properties of growth and equilibrium seeking. . . .
This is formidable eye candy for the I-love-science crowd, sure to
spark a sense of impressed wonder at the beauty of our universe and
our ability to photograph it."
--Publishers Weekly "From tigers' stripes to the hexagons that make
up honeycombs to the ripples in windblown sand, the natural world
is full of order and regularity. Science writer Ball investigates
the phenomenon in his new book, Patterns in Nature, with 250
photographs of snowflakes, shells, and more. Nature's patterns
follow basic principles of mathematics and physics, leading to
similarities in the stripes, spirals, branches and fractals around
us. 'There's an abundance of detail in nature that we can't see,"
he says. "Even in what seems unstructured, there's pattern.'"
--Wall Street Journal
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