The Infinite Monkey Cage Nature's Shapes - Dave Gorman, Sarah Hart and Thomas Woolley
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Mar 26, 2025 Mathematician Sarah Hart, a fellow at Birkbeck University, joins comedian Dave Gorman and Thomas Woolley to explore nature's geometry. They discuss how evolution crafts elegant forms, like tortoise shells and the leaf distribution of trees. The conversation touches on Alan Turing’s influence on animal patterns, the mystery of the golden ratio, and even Gorman's quirky disdain for oblongs. With humor and insight, they reveal the mathematical wonders embedded in the natural world.
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Nature's Efficiency
- Nature often finds the most elegant solutions to problems, like optimal leaf distribution or tortoise shell geometry.
- These solutions often precede mathematicians' discoveries, demonstrating nature's millennia of experimentation.
Symmetry in Nature
- Symmetry in nature and mathematics stems from reusing efficient mechanisms in all directions.
- A sphere is highly symmetrical because it has no constraints preventing it, unlike larger organisms affected by gravity.
The Gombok and Tortoise Shell
- Mathematicians sought a shape with one stable point and discovered the gombok.
- Nature had already designed the tortoise shell similarly, allowing tortoises to self-right.