Fractals for Food

"QUANTUM SHOT" #133(rev) Link - article by Avi Abrams If You Eat This, Will You Become Better At Math? You probably have seen it before, but this particular vegetable never ceases to amaze me: This is the "Chou Romanesco" cauliflower (more info). "When you come across it in a grocery store... on first encounter it's hard to imagine you're looking at a garden vegetable rather than an alien artifact created with molecular nanotechnology." (source). Romanesco broccoli is also called "Brocciflower", among with the "Green Cauliflower" variety. (bottom image credit: Benjamin Pender) More cabbage weirdness: (images credit: Tuffen, Narcissa) Fractals in Nature Wired Magazine has collected an impressive gallery of natural fractal patterns, plus this article cites many similar examples and logarithmic growth spirals found in nature. Various fern plants display great fractal geometry: (images via) Many Aloe Vera plants (in this case Aloe polyphylla) proudly display a Fibonacci spiral: (image credit: Colin Warren) Classic seashell geometry is often based on a logarithmic growth spiral: (this is a shell of the marine mollusc Nautilus, via) Fractal virus and bacterial colonies look like abstract paintings or wallpaper patterns: (images via Science News) A Fractal Lighting These are fractal formations created during a powerful electrical discharge: so-called "Lichtenberg Figures", they become visible on rocks, wood, and even people, after these objects and unfortunate humans get struck by lightning. This particular pattern (shown below) appeared while exposing a rotating cylinder of lucite to an electron beam: (image via) The Cornstarch Monster While you may be eating vegetables which look like fractals, be on the lookout for a hungry fractal-blob monster eager to leap out and eat you! Check out this very active and dynamic "cornstarch life-form", which also displays fractal and wave-patterns geometry in its unspeakable dance (activated and controlled by sound waves): CONTINUE TO "PRE-FRACTAL ART"! ->