nature's russian nesting dolls

Geoff Grammer, evolutionary baggage reader and master of science geekery, requested I write a little something up about reoccurring patterns in nature, and more specifically, fractals. But the two topics are so interesting that I think we should cover just one per post. Fractals, you’re up.

Fractals are physical phenomena where patterns occur infinitesimally within themselves. You could say they are the Russian nesting dolls of natural design. The same design occurs over and over within itself; the catch being that it does not lose detail with magnification level. For example, the crystalline structures of snow flakesare just the same when looking at the flake with your naked eye as it is when you put it under a microscope. Ice crystals, lightening bolts, sea shells, fiddleheads, animal coloration patterns, blood vessels, and various vegetables are a few well-known instances of fractal development. You could generalize and say that things that “branch” have a tendency to exhibit fractals. Let’s begin our tour-de-fractals.

Lichtenberg figures are the nifty designs that electricity produces when traveling through an insulator. They show the branching paths that electricity wants to take when it travels. Often times, lightening-strike survivors have Lichtenberg figure burns on their skin. They represent electricity's tendency towards entropy- little fingers desperately stretching in all directions seeking a medium by which to travel.

Man struck by lightening marked by Lichtenberg figure
(en.wikipedia.org)

A full head of Romanesco broccoli
(fourilab.ch)

Romanesco broccoli is what we call an approximate fractal, since the pattern does not exactly occur infinitesimally- but pretty darn close. Once it reaches a very tiny size, the pattern ceases. But for some magnification levels, each little bud looks like an entire head of broccoli. And each bud on that bud looks like an entire head of broccoli. And each bud on that bud on that bud... okay I'll stop. Same deal with the fronds of a fern.

Ice crystals are fractal in nature. They are always hexagonal and symmetrical- but no two are exactly the same. When a snow flake lands on you, you can see with your naked eye that it is snow-flakey looking (hexagonal and symmetrical). Take it apart, and you will see that it is really a clump of ice crystals, each of which is snow-flakey. As the frozen water masses fall through different temperatures and humidity, ice crystals form on the ice crystals. It is this stage of formation that creates the details that make each snowflake unique. In the pictures below, you can see the "pieces" of a snowflake and how they come together to make more intricate, larger versions of themselves.

(wikipedia.com)

When people see the detail and "perfectness" of such things, they often say "how could that just happen? There's got to be something bigger." And I agree- there is something bigger. It's the definition of "something bigger" that varies from person to person. But really, does that definition matter that much? I think we can all agree on the impressiveness of nature when viewed through a microscope.