The Self Made Tapestry by Philip Ball explores the reasons for simi-

lar patterns to emerge in seemingly unrealated forms in nature. The

answer sems so always be linked back to physics and natural law. In
living organisms, genetics does play a role in the pattern formation pro-
cess, but natural selection is not enough to account for the fact that
with the eception of the Cambrian period, most forms develop as slight
variations of proven themes such as four legs and muscles. D’arcy Wen-
thworth Thompson proposed that complicated solutions to problems
are contantly replaced by a simpler more elegant solution. Thompson
beleives that its not natural selection but natural inevibility. This theory
explains why similar patterns emerge in unrelated realms of the natural
world. These patterns are the most efficient results of combinations of
natural laws.
 When bees are presented with the problem
of creating cells to store honey, only three regular
packing arrangements arise. The hexagonal ar-
rangement is more efficient than the three or four
sided arrays because it encloses the same amount
of volume with the least amount of surface area.
Bubbles of equal size also organize into a
hexagonal arrangement as a way of achieving the
smallest surface area. and optimized path.
D’arcy Thompson suggests that the bees did
not in fact figure out the most efficient organiza-
tion through trial and error. Instead, bees simple
creat bubbles out of a quasi-liqid wax which natu-
rally reorganizes itself based on physical laws. Es-
sentially the same forces of surface tension which
organized the bubbles into a hexagonal array are
at work in the wax when heated enough by the
bees body temperature.
 Bubbles meet at
what is known as Plateau
borders. Joseph Antoine
Ferdinand Plateu worked
with wet and dry foams
and discovered a set of
rules which govern their
organization.
In wet foams, sur-
face tension keeps the
air bubbles spherical and
smaller bubbles fill in the
sapce between larger
ones. As water drains
from the foam and the
bubbles become more
polyhedral forming dry
foams. A process known
as coarsing then occurs
where small bubbles
may merge to form larg-
er ones. As they reorga-
nize they begin to settle
into 120˚threefold junc-
tions. Whenever a four
sided junction is present,
the bubbles reorganize
into two three sided con-
nections when dealing
with an essentially 2d
array of bubbles.
When foams orga- Bees pack honey-
nize themsleves in three comb cells in two back
dimensions, Plateau to back layers. The two
observed that only four dimensional hexagonal
Plateau borders met organiztion of honey-
along any vertex. These comb cells must then
borders meet at an angle work in three dimen-
of 109.5˚ which is known sions to find the most
as the tetrahedral angle. efficient packing organi-
In order to reach equilib- zation. The converging
rium, soap foams must ends can assume the
adhere to these rules as form of half of either a
well. rhombic dodecahedra or
There are four poly- Kelvin’s truncated octa-
hedral cell chapes which hedra.
satisfy all of Plateau’s These points of
rules. Cellular packing interface are known as
results in several scales Tóth’s structures. The
and combinations of minimal surface area is
these polyhedra. They achieved by the trun-
posses the ability to ag- cated octahedron but
gregate as both regular as the bubbles contain
and irregular polyhedra. more liquid the ends
reorganize into rhom-
buses.
 Fractures or breakdowns in different materi-
als provide an efficient and sometimes emergent
model for both subdivison and bifurcation. See
to the upper left is the fracture pattern in a peice
of windscreen glass. The following image shows
cracks in a microscopic polymer whos circular par-
ticles are arranged in a hexagonal array. Fracture
patterns are dependent on how brittle the materi-
al is and the speed the crack is traveling across the Similar paths can be seen when passing an
surface. Seen below is an atomic lattice cracked at electrical discharge through a material. As the
two different speeds. The first is below the critical electric current passes through the plexiglass in
velocity and the fractuture is strait and predictable. the first image, it cracks and vaporizes the material
The second speed is above the critical velocity and leaving a branching pattern behind. In the follow-
the pattern biforcates and is less predicatable. ing image a fractal pattern is left.

The dielectric breakdown model seen to the

left plots the path of an electrical discharge. At ev-
ery node there is more than one direction in which
the current can flow. The current tends to run from
highest to lowest electrical potential.This leads to
both bifurcation and changes in direction.

The optimal river network to the left errodes

as it finds its ideal path. The landscape is affected
by this flow and fractal patterns emerge from the
initially random river flows.
 Grainy materials posses the abilty to create complex forms which are
seen at different scales throughout nature. Researchers have used these pat-
terns which can easily be created in a controlled experiment to explain com-
plex phenomena like the formation of the universe.

The experiment below was first executed in 1963 by the engineer J.C.
Williams to explain what has been dubbed by physicists the Brasil nut effect.
This occurs when multiple grain sizes are randomly placed in the same con-
tainer and then shaken vertically. The grains eventually sort themseves by
size with the largest particles at the top. Williams proposed that as the grains
“jump” when shaken a space is created below each grain. The smaller par-
ticles find their way down into the void left by the large particles. If shaken
enough times all of the particles will sort themeslves. To test this theory, Wil-
liams placed one large grain in the center of a mixture of substantially small-
er grains. The grains immediately to the side of the large central grain were
dyed darker in order to track their movement. As the mixture is shaken the
darker grains reorganize to form a cone beneath
the large grain. Each time the mixture is shaken
the large grain will rise approximately the thick-
ness of the dark cone or d. A computer model o
However, in 1993 Sydney Nagel proved that this theory explains only
this experiment completed in 1992 seemed to
half of the phenomenon. In this experiment glass beads of similar size and
prove Williams theory correct.
one centrally placed larger bead were placed in a cylinder and dyed across
a horziontal axis in order to track movement much like the previous experi-
ment. The cylinder is then shaken vertically. This time the grains exhibit cir-
culating motions like those in a convection cell. As the large central bead is
jacked up towards the top, the smaller beads are initially forced downwards
in the center of the mixture. As the mixture is continuously shaken the beads
on the outer edge move downwards at ta faster rate than those in the center.
Eventually this forces the central beads back up again as the beads along the
walls make their way towards the center. The large bead is not forced down-
wards when it reaches upper wall because it can not fit in the narrow band
of downward moving beads. This causes the size seperation.
 When a thin layer of grains and then shaken, several different paterns of peaks emerge along the surface. Michael Fara-
day proposed that a difference in air pressure caused by the air pockets between the grain mixture. When the grain is shaken
enough the bottom layers jump from the bottom creating a negative difference in air pressure which then sucks adjacent grains
under the pervious layer. These grains can develop into striped, triangular, square, or hexaonal wave patterns. The patterns can
change based on the shaking frequency. By changing the frequency or amplitude of the shake the same set of grains will tranis-
tion through the different possible configurations seen in the graph to the left. If the amplitude exceeds a certain threshold, dis-
order will emerge regardless of the shaking frequency.
At low vibration amplitudes the entire mixture rises and falls at the same rate, but as the first critical amplitude is reached a
bifurcation emerges in the falt layer resulting in striped patterns at high frequencies and squared patterns at low frequencies.
At a second critical amplitude yet another bifurcation occurs which results in hexagonal patterning. This doubled up oscilation
results in a pattern transition which switches between peaks and cells.
Troy Shinbrot noticed that the rate which the grains fall at is that of gracity adn therefore remains constant and resolved to
look deeper into the horizontal components of the grains’ motions. Since the patterns are horizontal, he proposed and tested
weather or not simply horizontal movement would produce these patterns. In a set of 100 shakes, complex patterns emerged
based on the strength of what is known as the randomizing effect. This occurs from the loss of energy in heat form with each
consecutive collision. These sets of patterns were more extensive than those of the vertical shake ex-
periments. Although the experiment is a gross simplification of all of the forces at work, the horizonal
motion model proves that gravity does not need to be taken into account.