Pattern and process

An early insight into the mechanisms responsible for order in some biological structures came from the work of D’Arcy Thompson, 31 who offered the first organized attempts to explain the growth and form of biological structures in terms of physical and mathematical principles. Thompson begins his book with a series of references to scientists and philosophers of previous centuries who held that no science is a true science unless it can be expressed in mathematical terms. He then proceeded, with inimitable style, to show that if biological structures obey the laws of physics, many aspects of biological form emerged as a simple consequence of the external and internal forces acting on cells, tissues, and organs during development. Furthermore, simple differences in the relative growth of different portions of a biological structure (a skull, or an appendage, or the carapace of a crab), could lead directly to the change in the shape of that structure observed during its ontogeny, and more importantly, could completely account for the species-specific differences in the shape of the structure. This work laid the foundation for subsequent studies on allometry, 13 and the mathematical analysis of form. 1,2.

Duke Scholars

Author H. Frederik Nijhout Biology