Is there an underlying set of principles that connects the pattern of a tiger's stripes with the design of a butterfly's wings? Are there hidden laws of life that lie deeper than DNA?
According to award-winning science writer Ian Stewart, the answer is yes, and the hidden rules are called mathematics. In Life's Other Secret, Stewart exploits a realm of pattern and beauty that links the pulse of life with the creative enterprise of mathematics.
Pointing to what he describes as an exaggerated emphasis on the power of DNA in determining the shape and behavior of life-forms, Stewart compares DNA to a recipe book of ingredients, quantities, and sequences: very useful, but far from a complete plan of the final result. Beneath the genes lies the rich texture of the physical universe with its deep patterns, forms, structures, processes, and systems—a world of infinite subtlety that can be described only through mathematics. Genes may move a life-form in a specific direction, but it is the mathematical laws of chemistry and physics that control an organism's response to its genetic instructions.
With the visionary work of the zoologist D'Arcy Thompson as his touchstone, Stewart unfolds a series of dazzling mathematical patterns in the organic world: the ethereal spiral of the nautilus shell, the fluid forms of a jellyfish, the boastful beauty of the peacock's tail, and the amazing numerology of floral petals. He leads us to a place where number and nature coalesce, and where the order of mathematics manifests itself in life.
Life's Other Secret teems with surprising insights. Stewart describes how complexity theory may help explain the origin and evolution of life, and how the Fibonacci number sequence of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 seems to rule the number of petals, stamens, and other parts of most plant life. He traces the mathematical patterns of locomotion through the broad range of limbs, wings, muscles, and fins. We learn about hidden mathematical order in flocks of birds, crowds of humans, and in the firing patterns of fireflies. The very nerve cells that relay the perception of these natural phenomena to the brain are most accurately described by mathematical models.
Through this eye-opening tour of an exciting new area of research, we perceive a growing sense of the wonders that will come out of a union of biology and mathematics, a union that will provide a deeper comprehension of the fundamental forces of life.
An invitation to a hidden world
In Life's Other Secret, mathematician and award-winning science writer Ian Stewart reveals the way mathematics describes the origin, structure, and evolution of life. With an abundance of illustrations, many in color, here is an intriguing invitation to enter a world deeper than DNA, a world where number series bloom in the spring and equations gallop across the plains.
"From one of mathematics' most gifted expositors . . . challenging and interesting. . . . Those with no knowledge of the subject will be able to glimpse its beauty and appeal." —New Scientist
Praise for Nature's Numbers
"An example of first-rate popular mathematics writing. . . . Stewart achieves what other popular writers merely strive for." —Nature
From Library Journal
While long an indispensable tool for the physical sciences, mathematics has only relatively recently been used to describe the symmetry of the living world. Stewart sees mathematical laws at work even at the level of DNA replication. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Breakthroughs in genetics have won biologists a great many kudos in recent years--but not from Stewart. He worries about tunnel vision among biologists blind to the discoveries that are waiting for researchers who will stop decoding DNA long enough to probe larger biological problems with the powerful mathematics now being deployed in physics. New formulas--the math of chaos, of fractals, of oscillators--give biologists the long-delayed opportunity to realize the hopes of D'Arcy Thompson, the maverick zoologist who began working out the geometry of life 80 years ago. Stewart challenges biologists to extend this geometry in their explanations of how cells split, how the eye hallucinates, how insects crawl, and how species evolve. Only specialists can carry out the research agenda he outlines, but Stewart writes with such compelling clarity that general readers can share in the intellectual daring of his perspective. Notes and annotated recommendations for further reading. Bryce Christensen
In this surprising and stimulating book, award-winning science writer Ian Stewart sounds the call that another, lesser-known revolution in the understanding of life has also occurred in the twentieth century. Life, scientists have discovered, is ruled not only by genetics, but also by hidden laws of mathematics, which may be even more fundamental than the codes written in our genes. By discovering these elegant laws, scientists may even be approaching a "final theory" of the origin and structure of life. Taking readers from the earliest speculations of biological heretic D'Arcy Thompson at the turn of the century to the cyberspace "virtual laboratories" of scientists at the cutting edge of research today, he offers delightful answers to many intriguing questions.
From the Back Cover
Is there an underlying set of principles that connects the pattern of a tiger's stripes with the design of a butterfly's wings? Are there hidden laws of life that lie deeper than DNA?
According to award-winning science writer Ian Stewart, the answer is yes, and the hidden rules are called mathematics. In Life's Other Secret, Stewart exploits a realm of pattern and beauty that links the pulse of life with the creative enterprise of mathematics.
Pointing to what he describes as an exaggerated emphasis on the power of DNA in determining the shape and behavior of life-forms, Stewart compares DNA to a recipe book of ingredients, quantities, and sequences: very useful, but far from a complete plan of the final result. Beneath the genes lies the rich texture of the physical universe with its deep patterns, forms, structures, processes, and systems--a world of infinite subtlety that can be described only through mathematics. Genes may move a life-form in a specific direction, but it is the mathematical laws of chemistry and physics that control an organism's response to its genetic instructions.
With the visionary work of the zoologist D'Arcy Thompson as his touchstone, Stewart unfolds a series of dazzling mathematical patterns in the organic world: the ethereal spiral of the nautilus shell, the fluid forms of a jellyfish, the boastful beauty of the peacock's tail, and the amazing numerology of floral petals. He leads us to a place where number and nature coalesce, and where the order of mathematics manifests itself in life.
Life's Other Secret teems with surprising insights. Stewart describes how complexity theory may help explain the origin and evolution of life, and how the Fibonacci number sequence of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 seems to rule the number of petals, stamens, and other parts of most plant life. He traces the mathematical patterns of locomotion through the broad range of limbs, wings, muscles, and fins. We learn about hidden mathematical order in flocks of birds, crowds of humans, and in the firing patterns of fireflies. The very nerve cells that relay the perception of these natural phenomena to the brain are most accurately described by mathematical models.
Through this eye-opening tour of an exciting new area of research, we perceive a growing sense of the wonders that will come out of a union of biology and mathematics, a union that will provide a deeper comprehension of the fundamental forces of life.
An invitation to a hidden world
In Life's Other Secret, mathematician and award-winning science writer Ian Stewart reveals the way mathematics describes the origin, structure, and evolution of life. With an abundance of illustrations, many in color, here is an intriguing invitation to enter a world deeper than DNA, a world where number series bloom in the spring and equations gallop across the plains.
"From one of mathematics' most gifted expositors . . . challenging and interesting. . . . Those with no knowledge of the subject will be able to glimpse its beauty and appeal." --New Scientist
Praise for Nature's Numbers
"An example of first-rate popular mathematics writing. . . . Stewart achieves what other popular writers merely strive for." --Nature
About the Author
IAN STEWART, Ph.D., has written or co-authored numerous books, including Does God Play Dice?, Fearful Symmetry, Collapse of Chaos, and Nature's Numbers. In addition, he writes the "Mathematical Recreations" column in Scientific American, serves as mathematics consultant to New Scientist, and is a regular contributor to Discover and The Sciences. In 1995 Dr. Stewart received the Royal Society of England's Michael Faraday Medal for outstanding contributions to the public understanding of science.
Is there an underlying set of principles that connects the pattern of a tiger's stripes with the design of a butterfly's wings? Are there hidden laws of life that lie deeper than DNA?
According to award-winning science writer Ian Stewart, the answer is yes, and the hidden rules are called mathematics. In Life's Other Secret, Stewart exploits a realm of pattern and beauty that links the pulse of life with the creative enterprise of mathematics.
Pointing to what he describes as an exaggerated emphasis on the power of DNA in determining the shape and behavior of life-forms, Stewart compares DNA to a recipe book of ingredients, quantities, and sequences: very useful, but far from a complete plan of the final result. Beneath the genes lies the rich texture of the physical universe with its deep patterns, forms, structures, processes, and systems—a world of infinite subtlety that can be described only through mathematics. Genes may move a life-form in a specific direction, but it is the mathematical laws of chemistry and physics that control an organism's response to its genetic instructions.
With the visionary work of the zoologist D'Arcy Thompson as his touchstone, Stewart unfolds a series of dazzling mathematical patterns in the organic world: the ethereal spiral of the nautilus shell, the fluid forms of a jellyfish, the boastful beauty of the peacock's tail, and the amazing numerology of floral petals. He leads us to a place where number and nature coalesce, and where the order of mathematics manifests itself in life.
Life's Other Secret teems with surprising insights. Stewart describes how complexity theory may help explain the origin and evolution of life, and how the Fibonacci number sequence of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 seems to rule the number of petals, stamens, and other parts of most plant life. He traces the mathematical patterns of locomotion through the broad range of limbs, wings, muscles, and fins. We learn about hidden mathematical order in flocks of birds, crowds of humans, and in the firing patterns of fireflies. The very nerve cells that relay the perception of these natural phenomena to the brain are most accurately described by mathematical models.
Through this eye-opening tour of an exciting new area of research, we perceive a growing sense of the wonders that will come out of a union of biology and mathematics, a union that will provide a deeper comprehension of the fundamental forces of life.
An invitation to a hidden world
In Life's Other Secret, mathematician and award-winning science writer Ian Stewart reveals the way mathematics describes the origin, structure, and evolution of life. With an abundance of illustrations, many in color, here is an intriguing invitation to enter a world deeper than DNA, a world where number series bloom in the spring and equations gallop across the plains.
"From one of mathematics' most gifted expositors . . . challenging and interesting. . . . Those with no knowledge of the subject will be able to glimpse its beauty and appeal." —New Scientist
Praise for Nature's Numbers
"An example of first-rate popular mathematics writing. . . . Stewart achieves what other popular writers merely strive for." —Nature
From Library Journal
While long an indispensable tool for the physical sciences, mathematics has only relatively recently been used to describe the symmetry of the living world. Stewart sees mathematical laws at work even at the level of DNA replication.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Breakthroughs in genetics have won biologists a great many kudos in recent years--but not from Stewart. He worries about tunnel vision among biologists blind to the discoveries that are waiting for researchers who will stop decoding DNA long enough to probe larger biological problems with the powerful mathematics now being deployed in physics. New formulas--the math of chaos, of fractals, of oscillators--give biologists the long-delayed opportunity to realize the hopes of D'Arcy Thompson, the maverick zoologist who began working out the geometry of life 80 years ago. Stewart challenges biologists to extend this geometry in their explanations of how cells split, how the eye hallucinates, how insects crawl, and how species evolve. Only specialists can carry out the research agenda he outlines, but Stewart writes with such compelling clarity that general readers can share in the intellectual daring of his perspective. Notes and annotated recommendations for further reading. Bryce Christensen
From Kirkus Reviews
Spectacular as the advances in genetics have been, the DNA molecule tells only part of the scientific story of life; much of the rest, this work argues, is built upon physical and mathematical principles only now being recognized. Stewart, who writes the ``Mathematical Recreations'' column for Scientific American, credits much of the groundwork for this study to D'Arcy Thompson, a Scottish biologist who died in 1948. The atoms of living beings are indistinguishable from those in a laboratory flask. Thompson's approach to this problem was to apply the laws of physics and mathematics to the shapes of living beings, from cells to complete organisms. Minimal surfaces, like those defined by soap bubbles, dictate that many small organisms will take the shape of regular solids. The spiral structures of other organisms, from shellfish to flowers, embody the Fibonacci series, a simple mathematical relationship. The markings of other creatures, from tropical fish to tigers and zebras, can be described by elegant mathematical formulas. As Stewart points out, these patterns are produced by genetics and evolution; but they can only be explained by examining the mathematical laws that genetics and evolution must conform to. With that in mind, Stewart takes the reader on a tour of the forms and structures of living things. We see the elegant symmetry of DNA and the geometry of viruses and cells. The evolutionary component of the subject is not neglected, e.g., the profound change of Earth's atmosphere to one with a large component of free oxygen required geometric strategies for organisms to protect themselves from the reactive gas. And new mathematical tools (fractals, chaos theory) as well as computer graphics programs are opening up the subject to study on a scale Thompson never could have achieved. Stewart makes his case in fascinating detail and with an easy, readable style that should make this material accessible to a wide range of readers. (100 drawings and photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From the Publisher
In this surprising and stimulating book, award-winning science writer Ian Stewart sounds the call that another, lesser-known revolution in the understanding of life has also occurred in the twentieth century. Life, scientists have discovered, is ruled not only by genetics, but also by hidden laws of mathematics, which may be even more fundamental than the codes written in our genes. By discovering these elegant laws, scientists may even be approaching a "final theory" of the origin and structure of life. Taking readers from the earliest speculations of biological heretic D'Arcy Thompson at the turn of the century to the cyberspace "virtual laboratories" of scientists at the cutting edge of research today, he offers delightful answers to many intriguing questions.
From the Back Cover
Is there an underlying set of principles that connects the pattern of a tiger's stripes with the design of a butterfly's wings? Are there hidden laws of life that lie deeper than DNA?
According to award-winning science writer Ian Stewart, the answer is yes, and the hidden rules are called mathematics. In Life's Other Secret, Stewart exploits a realm of pattern and beauty that links the pulse of life with the creative enterprise of mathematics.
Pointing to what he describes as an exaggerated emphasis on the power of DNA in determining the shape and behavior of life-forms, Stewart compares DNA to a recipe book of ingredients, quantities, and sequences: very useful, but far from a complete plan of the final result. Beneath the genes lies the rich texture of the physical universe with its deep patterns, forms, structures, processes, and systems--a world of infinite subtlety that can be described only through mathematics. Genes may move a life-form in a specific direction, but it is the mathematical laws of chemistry and physics that control an organism's response to its genetic instructions.
With the visionary work of the zoologist D'Arcy Thompson as his touchstone, Stewart unfolds a series of dazzling mathematical patterns in the organic world: the ethereal spiral of the nautilus shell, the fluid forms of a jellyfish, the boastful beauty of the peacock's tail, and the amazing numerology of floral petals. He leads us to a place where number and nature coalesce, and where the order of mathematics manifests itself in life.
Life's Other Secret teems with surprising insights. Stewart describes how complexity theory may help explain the origin and evolution of life, and how the Fibonacci number sequence of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 seems to rule the number of petals, stamens, and other parts of most plant life. He traces the mathematical patterns of locomotion through the broad range of limbs, wings, muscles, and fins. We learn about hidden mathematical order in flocks of birds, crowds of humans, and in the firing patterns of fireflies. The very nerve cells that relay the perception of these natural phenomena to the brain are most accurately described by mathematical models.
Through this eye-opening tour of an exciting new area of research, we perceive a growing sense of the wonders that will come out of a union of biology and mathematics, a union that will provide a deeper comprehension of the fundamental forces of life.
An invitation to a hidden world
In Life's Other Secret, mathematician and award-winning science writer Ian Stewart reveals the way mathematics describes the origin, structure, and evolution of life. With an abundance of illustrations, many in color, here is an intriguing invitation to enter a world deeper than DNA, a world where number series bloom in the spring and equations gallop across the plains.
"From one of mathematics' most gifted expositors . . . challenging and interesting. . . . Those with no knowledge of the subject will be able to glimpse its beauty and appeal." --New Scientist
Praise for Nature's Numbers
"An example of first-rate popular mathematics writing. . . . Stewart achieves what other popular writers merely strive for." --Nature
About the Author
IAN STEWART, Ph.D., has written or co-authored numerous books, including Does God Play Dice?, Fearful Symmetry, Collapse of Chaos, and Nature's Numbers. In addition, he writes the "Mathematical Recreations" column in Scientific American, serves as mathematics consultant to New Scientist, and is a regular contributor to Discover and The Sciences. In 1995 Dr. Stewart received the Royal Society of England's Michael Faraday Medal for outstanding contributions to the public understanding of science.