Flow

Ball, a science writer and consultant editor for Nature magazine, has produced a three-volume exploration of nature's capacity to produce endless patterns from living and nonliving materials. Over time and under infinitely varying conditions, physical, chemical, and biological forces generate the constantly changing world in which we live. These changes are governed by elegant, far-reaching principles, which are the focus of the author's explorations. In the first volume, Shapes, he examines a number of familiar pattern types in nature and identifies the physical and mathematical principles that underlie their formation. Using D'Arcy Thompson's work as a springboard, he touches on a wide variety of natural forms ranging from radiolaria, cell membranes, and butterfly wings to seashells, leopard spots, and termite mounds.In the second of the series, Flow, the author discusses the patterned consistency of forms in motion--in different time frames and under different circumstances--that reveal a deep unity within nature. Beginning with Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of turbulence and Harold Edgerton's high-speed photographs, Ball proceeds through a consideration of ordered flows, convection patterns, and the properties of chaotic systems, which he sees as the unifying principles that tie together such disparate phenomena as the hexagonal patterns of both beehives and Saturn's north pole, and the granular behavior of sand dunes on Mars and convection cells in the sun's photosphere.The last volume is Branches. From the snowflake crystals and the fractal character of mountain terrains to waterways, bacterial colonies, and social networks, another set of underlying principles emerge, producing patterns of branching, self-similarity, and interconnection. This work draws on a variety of disciplines from physics, chemistry, and geology to biology, sociology, and mathematics. Ball is an inspired generalist who is able to take different intellectual and academic perspectives, as well as wildly divergent natural phenomena, and weave them into a coherent tapestry that will serve the professional and the casual reader alike. The writing is both precise and readable, and the generous illustrations--line diagrams, black-and-white photos, and color plates--are fascinating, informative, and consistently well done. Although a number of works like this have been published in recent years, few have been of similar quality. These three volumes are a worthwhile addition to any library collection. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals; general audiences. R. M. Davis emeritus, Albion College