Shapes

This is the first of three books on the patterns of nature. Its starting point is the great work by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson on Growth and Form, which Sir Peter Medawar regarded as the finest piece of scientific literature. The author writes that science has imitated Thompson's approach of searching of universal physical causes of pattern and order, 'offering us a glimpse of the kind of natural harmony that pervades and structure of the whole world.' He defines a pattern as a form in which particular features recur recognisably and regularly, created from groups of these features. The book ranges over a wide variety of forms, exploring the broad principles that underpin the formation of patterns such as shells, beehives, pine cones and even the human body.