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Why do living things and physical phenomena take the form they do? D'Arcy Thompson's classic On Growth and Form looks at the way things grow and the shapes they take. Analysing biological processes in their mathematical and physical aspects, this historic work, first published in 1917, has also become renowned for the sheer poetry of its descriptions. A great scientist sensitive to the fascinations and beauty of the natural world tells of jumping fleas and slipper limpets; of buds and seeds; of bees' cells and rain drops; of the potter's thumb and the spider's web; of a film of soap and a bubble of oil; of a splash of a pebble in a pond. D'Arcy Thompson's writing, hailed as 'good literature as well as good science; a discourse on science as though it were a humanity', is now made available for a wider readership, with a foreword by one of today's great populisers of science, explaining the importance of the work for a new generation of readers.
Book Description
D'Arcy Thompson's classic On Growth and Form looks at the way things grow and the shapes they take. Analysing biological processes in their mathematical and physical aspects, this historic work, first published in 1917, has also become renowned for the sheer poetry of its descriptions. It is now available for a wider readership including a foreword by one of today's great populisers of science.
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Of the chemistry of his day and generation, Kant declared that it was a science, but not Science-eine Wissenschaft, aber nicht Wissenschaft-for that the criterion of true science lay in its relation to mathematics. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Of the chemistry of his day and generation, Kant declared that it was a science, but not Science-eine Wissenschaft, aber nicht Wissenschaft-for that the criterion of true science lay in its relation to mathematics. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I heard about this marvellous book as I was reading in the typical popular science literature years ago now but its almost impossible to avoid contact with this tome of the archetypal polymath D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. A remarkable man with a wonderful open view of science and the, what's now called, interdisciplinarian approach to the world. Refreshingly full of new ideas especially for his day and even now where conservatism as usual is the norm in scientific circles. I hope many scientists read this book and see not just a curiosity but a representation of a whole approach to the world of nature. I will never forget the first time I read the chapter on coordinate transformations in animal shapes, today's schools simply do not inspire in this way and its time this changed. The prescence of this book, well read, on any person's bookshelf is a must.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First published in 1917; revised in 1942 - about 800 and 1100 pages respectively. Those volumes are collector's items by now and perhaps stand as a monument to disinterested curiosity in wartime. This edited Cambridge University version (editor John Tyler Bonner) is about 300 pages and therefore seriously shorter, though the original wording and diagrams were retained as much as possible.
For people unused to this type of material, let me list a few topics (examples only, and simplified!):--
[1] The properties of oxygen - its diffusion in liquids and so on - determine the maximum size of organisms which need oxygen for energy. (I.e. animals rather than plants). Thus insects - which have no heart - are smaller than mammals, for example. Partial pressures of oxygen and nitrogen dissolved in river water have their own controlling influences.
[2] Lengths, areas, and volumes when scaled up are in proportion to l: l squared: l cubed. Thus an internal skeleton, made twice as tall, must support about eight times the musculature of the original skeleton. This sort of thing helps explains thicker bones in large animals - and such things as lung size, and heartbeat rate.
[3] Fish are supported by the surrounding water, and are roughly as efficient irrespective of size. Birds on the other hand cannot fly if their wing size and muscle ratio are too small. Hence birds's sizes have evolved to be very accurately controlled, while fish may grow in size almost indefinitely.
[4] Because of diffraction at the side of a pinhole (i.e. blurring), very tiny eyes cannot have pupils.
[5] Ram's horns grow in a spiral, of a type with keeps the centre of gravity constant. Thus ram's heads bear their load in an efficient manner.
Fascinating stuff which needs some mathematical flair to grasp - though the flair needed is not so much arithmetical and a matter of counting, as geometrical and a matter of appreciation of physics. The material omitted is (I think) on less precise topics, such as water flow in tubes, and the formation of eddies and smoke.
I have one reservation: material on cell structure was edited out by Bonner on the grounds it's outdated. In fact there's overwhelming evidence now that much post-1945 biology of the cell is erroneous. Possibly in time a new comprehensively updated edition will be issued, though it would (probably?) be a work of love rather than profit.
For people unused to this type of material, let me list a few topics (examples only, and simplified!):--
[1] The properties of oxygen - its diffusion in liquids and so on - determine the maximum size of organisms which need oxygen for energy. (I.e. animals rather than plants). Thus insects - which have no heart - are smaller than mammals, for example. Partial pressures of oxygen and nitrogen dissolved in river water have their own controlling influences.
[2] Lengths, areas, and volumes when scaled up are in proportion to l: l squared: l cubed. Thus an internal skeleton, made twice as tall, must support about eight times the musculature of the original skeleton. This sort of thing helps explains thicker bones in large animals - and such things as lung size, and heartbeat rate.
[3] Fish are supported by the surrounding water, and are roughly as efficient irrespective of size. Birds on the other hand cannot fly if their wing size and muscle ratio are too small. Hence birds's sizes have evolved to be very accurately controlled, while fish may grow in size almost indefinitely.
[4] Because of diffraction at the side of a pinhole (i.e. blurring), very tiny eyes cannot have pupils.
[5] Ram's horns grow in a spiral, of a type with keeps the centre of gravity constant. Thus ram's heads bear their load in an efficient manner.
Fascinating stuff which needs some mathematical flair to grasp - though the flair needed is not so much arithmetical and a matter of counting, as geometrical and a matter of appreciation of physics. The material omitted is (I think) on less precise topics, such as water flow in tubes, and the formation of eddies and smoke.
I have one reservation: material on cell structure was edited out by Bonner on the grounds it's outdated. In fact there's overwhelming evidence now that much post-1945 biology of the cell is erroneous. Possibly in time a new comprehensively updated edition will be issued, though it would (probably?) be a work of love rather than profit.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Peter Medawar called Growth and Form a classic of biological literature. This new edition makes it an accessible classic. Originally it was two volumes and over 1000 pages this edited volume and it was a challenging read. This new edition has kept Thompsons fantastic illustrations and removed some of the failings of the original text updating what is sure to become a classic of "systems biology"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
great scientific book
Used this as research for my product design course, his arguements on evolution. and growth were of great value. Read more
Published 4 months ago by shane t
On growth and form
This is a very edited version of the original, and unfortunately for me, the chapter I most wanted to read has been omitted.
stanley freedman
stanley freedman
Published 5 months ago by brown,b
Arts in Science
Classic Nouveau.
A fantastic point of view from science that complements the work of Patrick Geddes.
IMPRESCINDIBLE
A fantastic point of view from science that complements the work of Patrick Geddes.
IMPRESCINDIBLE
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by Juan Cabello Arribas
A science classic. The meaning of form. Invention of chaos
A science masterpiece. Written during WWI, revised during WW2. An amazing amount of knowledge, viewed through the eyes of an incredibly perceptive scholar and scientist. Read more
Published on 13 May 1999
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