(Image: Oxford University Press)
OURS is a world of patterns, both living and non-living, from the rippling dunes of the Sahara to the butterflies’ kaleidoscopic wings and the infinite detail of a fractured surface. Philip Ball’s Shapes is the first volume in a trilogy exploring the natural laws that create these varied forms.
Packed with inspiring images of natural patterns, including the perfect hexagons of the bees’ honeycomb and the angelfish’s stripes, Shapes answers questions such as what makes seawater foam like the frothy head of a beer? And why do snowflakes have such intricate structure, all strikingly symmetric…
