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The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells

For centuries scientists have tried to understand the growth and development of multicellular organisms. More recently, with the help of mathematical models and computerized simulations, they have discovered algorithmic patterns and models that seem to describe the dynamic processes in which organisms grow, reproduce, and respond to external factors. In this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, Hans Meinhardt explains and illustrates these structural growth patterns in the case of sea shells. The book delightfully conveys the intuitive appeal and the "touch of magic" in this research. A diskette packaged with the book contains a program that allows the reader to run the simulations on a PC. New patterns can be generated interactively to provide an insight into the process of biological pattern formation.

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  • "For centuries scientists have tried to understand the growth and development of multicellular organisms. More recently, with the help of mathematical models and computerized simulations, they have discovered algorithmic patterns and models that seem to describe the dynamic processes in which organisms grow, reproduce, and respond to external factors. In this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, Hans Meinhardt explains and illustrates these structural growth patterns in the case of sea shells. The book delightfully conveys the intuitive appeal and the "touch of magic" in this research. A diskette packaged with the book contains a program that allows the reader to run the simulations on a PC. New patterns can be generated interactively to provide an insight into the process of biological pattern formation."@en
  • "The patterns on the shells of tropical sea snails are not only compellingly beautiful but also tell a tale of biological development. The decorative patterns are records of their own genesis, which follows laws like those of dune formation or the spread of a flu epidemic. Hans Meinhardt has analyzed the dynamical processes that form these patterns and retraced them faithfully in computer simulations. His book is exciting not only for the astonishing scientific knowledge it reveals but also for its fascinating pictures. An accompanying diskette with the corresponding algorithms offers wide scopes to those with a PC who whish to try their hand at simulating and varying the patterns."@en
  • ""Review of the 4th edition: It is a strikingly beautiful book, with more than a hundred color illustrations of patterns on mollusk shells, side by side with the computer simulations that reproduce them. This bestiary of pattern formation includes stripes (straight or produced by traveling waves), dots, drops, triangles, and meshwork combined in any imaginable way. It is truly remarkable that this diversity of patterns seems to have arisen in the absence of any selective pressure, as the animals that express them spend their lives buried in mud or sand. Thus, these patterns are in essence a manifestation of Nature at play. Meinhardt has a great knack for explaining pattern-forming mechanisms in a non-technical way. In the first few chapters of his book he introduces us to the basic elements of his model in accessible and vivid terms. He shows how local non-linear self-activation combined with a rapidly diffusible repressor (or limiting substrate) leads to the formation of dots and stripes from homogeneous initial conditions, a phenomenon first described by Turing in 1952 as diffusion-driven instability. He then goes on to explain how oscillating patterns and traveling waves can be produced by the same basic model with different decay and diffusion rates. Here, the author and the book are at their best."-- Johannes Jaeger in: Bioessays 32: 638--640, 2010 WILEY Periodicals, Inc."
  • "The patterns on the shells of tropical sea snails are not only compellingly beautiful but also tell a tale of biological development. The decorative patterns are records of their own genesis, which follows laws like those of dune formation or the spread of a flu epidemic. Hans Meinhardt has analyzed the dynamical processes that form these patterns and retraced them faithfully in computer simulations. His book is exciting not only for the astonishing scientific knowledge it reveals but also for its fascinating pictures."@en
  • "The patterns on the shells of tropical sea snails are not only compellingly beautiful but also tell a tale of biological development. The decorative patterns are records of their own genesis, which follows laws like those of dune formation or the spread of a flu epidemic. Hans Meinhardt has analyzed the dynamical processes that form these patterns and retraced them faithfully in computer simulations. His book is exciting not only for the astonishing scientific knowledge it reveals but also for its fascinating pictures. Many of the simulations are supplied on the accompanying CD-ROM in HTML format. Thus, the highly dynamic behavior of the interactions on which shell patterning is based can be inspected like conventional websites with any browser, also on a Macintosh or Linux system. The animations are given as separate files that also can be integrated, e.g., into a PowerPoint presentation if desired. Also included are animated simulations of models that describe more general problems in the development of higher organisms, e.g., formation of organizing regions, pattern formation in hydra, gene activation, formation of net-like structures, and chemotactic orientation."
  • "The patterns on the shells of tropical sea snails are not only compellingly beautiful but also tell a tale of biological development. The decorative patterns are records of their own genesis, which follows laws like those of dune formation or the spread of a flu epidemic. This book reveals the scientific knowledge."@en
  • "Dieser Band bietet einen Einblick in das faszinierende Forschungsgebiet der Strukturbildung von Organismen während ihrer Entwicklung. Anhand der Muster auf den Schalen tropischer Meeresschnecken zeigt Hans Meinhardt Gesetzmäßigkeiten auf, die Strukturbildung ermöglichen. Die dekorativen Muster dieser Gehäuse stellen Protokolle ihrer eigenen Entstehung dar: Sie geben den zeitlichen Ablauf der dynamischen Prozesse wieder, die längs der Wachstumskante der Schalen abgelaufen sind. Das erlaubt das Dechiffrieren dieser Muster. In einem abschließenden Kapitel wird gezeigt, daß die dafür entwickelten Modelle auch andere Musterbildungsprozesse in der Biologie gut beschreiben, z.B. die Bildung der embryonalen Achsen eines Embryos oder die Bildung von Adern und Blattanlaagen. Enge Parallelen ergeben sich zu Prozessen wie der Weiterleitung von Nervenimpulsen oder der Blutgerinnung. Dabei wird deutlich, daß hier universelle Mechanismen am Werk sind, die auch bei der Entwicklung von Sternen, Dünen, Erosionsformen oder der Bildung von Grippewelleln wiederzufinden sind. Mit der beigefügten Diskette kann der Leser die Simulationen am PC selbst nachvollziehen und variieren."

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  • "Medienkombination"
  • "Electronic books"@en
  • "Electronic books"

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  • "The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells"
  • "The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells"@en
  • "Wie Schnecken sich in Schale werfen Muster tropischer Meeresschnecken als dynamische Systeme"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells : with contributions and images by Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz and Deborah R. Fowler"
  • "Wie Schnecken sich in Schale werfen : Muster tropischer Meeresschnecken als dynamische Systeme"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells : shell patterns as dynamic systems"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells : and CD-ROM"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells Buch"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells"@en
  • "Algorithmic beauty of sea shells"
  • "The?Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells"@en
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells with CD-ROM"
  • "Wie Schnecken sich in Schale werfen : Muster tropischer Meeresschneeken als dynamische Systeme"
  • "The algorithmic beauty of sea shells Diskette"
  • "The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells Hans Meinhardt"@es

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