Shells

This shell shows how the golden ratio is used in nature. The shell grows in an arched curve while getting larger followling the exact proportions of the golden ratio.

Snow Flake Fractals

Photo from snowcrystals.com

The snowflake, when viewed through a photomicroscope demonstrates how ice crystals form along structure parameters unherent in water molecules. The shape itself changes relative to the temperature and humidity in which it formed. The crystalline structure of water exhibits a six-sided symmetry ergo why snowflakes typically generate 6 nearly identical arms. Colder temperatures augment this standard and can result in triangular compositions. Additionally, even colder temperatures enable needles to form which are elongated columnar crystals which froze more rapidly. When the water is supersaturated with mineral content, the dendrtic branching occurs fractally relative to the external forces acting upon the planar object.

Nature's superior technology

This is a close up image of shark skin, which has been used as a model by Speedo to create swim suits that cut through water more efficiently.

Here is an image of a plant, known as a phyllotaxis (Greek for leaf arrangement). The pattern shows a naturally occurring mathematical relationship. This particular plant is a spiral phyllotaxis and it's pattern relates to Fibonacci's number.

This is a response to Drew's post. Last semester my group was looking into having our building perhapse breathe in some way, and as we were looking at lungs I found this great image in a book and scanned it in, and now lost it. At any rate, it was a drawing showing how the lung is basically a fractal in the way it continously breaks down and repeats itself. While looking into the lung thing, we started looking at fractals, and came across that broccoli. Heres some lungs and a fractal fern.

This is a type of cauliflower known as "Romanesco," which is primarily found in Europe.Its head is an example of a fractal image in nature, repeating itself in self-similarity at varying scales.

scripters ancient to the future

Plato - the theory of Forms and platonic solids

John Cage - iChing and chance operations determining musical composition

Robert Reich - tape loops set to x duration and layered, creating juxtaposition of rhythm and melody

Bucky Fuller - geodesic structure, tensegrity

Jackson Pollock - Jack the "Dripper" using a stick instead of a paintbrush

Antonio Gaudi - creating the Sagrada Familia through the use of invert chain catenary arch modeling

None of these form-creators used a computer! ...but all used form-generative formulations... rules... to govern the creation of their work, designing not the object but the terms. This should make us feel better, that "scripting" has an analog equivalent in the world, and is at least as old as ancient Greece.

coded behavior

This is an image of planktic foraminiferal, theorized to be a planktic cell found in marine life. The theoretical morphogenetics or morphspace of this planktic form derive from 3 parameters, the angle of advance, amount of overlap, and ratio between successive chambers.