Aesthetic And Spiritual
- An idea from Neo-Confucian spirituality that could help us define Nature. A great blog on the “Li” — organizing principles in Nature .
- Gwen Meyer’s wonderfully spiritual blog where she joins her passion for nature’s patterns with her love for God.
- Cannon Beach Log — Soul refreshment from the Oregon Coast
- A wonderful video that uses the aesthetic senses to show relationships between patterns in nature.
- The Web a wonderful poem about connectivity and relationships in nature by Alison Hawthorne Deming
- Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, used nature as a metaphor to express his spirituality. Here are some excerpts from his writings.
- Thoreau’s chapter on solitude in Walden
- No matter who your higher power might be, you will be moved by this video.
- Nature photography links
- William Graham
- Ken Conger
- Miguel Lasa
- Florian Schultz
- Art Wolfe
- Sights And Sounds Of The Southern Ocean — A nine minute video of animals and birds at the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.
Behavior And Social Patterns
- Wikipedia on memes
- What is a meme ?
- Wikipedia on sociobiology
- George Boeree’s web page on sociobiology
- Wikipedia on epigenetics
- PBS Nova web page and video on epigenetics
Bubbles and Foam
Complex Systems
Engaging Nature
Interrelationships and Natural Systems
- Wikipedia on systems biology..
- Stuttgart University on systems biology.
- Kevin Kelly’s online book about ‘vivisystems’
- Denis Noble’s great book on systems biology “The Music Of Life”.
- E.O.Wilson’s equally engaging book that emphasises a holistic approach to studying nature — “In Search Of Nature”.
Nature Conservancy Presentations
Networks and Network Theory
- A documentary on networks – part 1
- A documentary on networks – part 2
- A documentary on networks – part 3
- A documentary on networks – part 4
- A documentary on networks – part 5
- Exploring Complex Networks by S. Strogatz .
- Wiki-Scale free networks .
- Wiki-Six degrees of separation .
- Complex Networks by L.A. Amaral, et.al. .
- 2010 Network Theory Lecture by Jari Chennai, et.al. .
- Small world experiments .
- The structure and function of complex networks by M.J. Newman .
- Scaling In Random Networks – Barbasi
Order In Nature
Patterns In Nature
Phyllotaxis, Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio
- Phyllotaxis definition from Wikipedia.
- Phyllotaxis definition from Wolfram Research.
- Hans Meinhardt on Phyllotaxis.
- Wikipedia on the Golden Ratio.
- Extensive web site on the Golden Ratio.
- Math Is Fun — Golden Ratio.
- Math Is Fun — Fibonacci.
- Nature By The Numbers
- Phi – The Nature Of Growth – video
Self Organization In Nature
- The Algorithmic Botany Group studies the modeling, simulation, and visualization of plants.
- Boids by Craig Reynolds
- Cellular Automata in Biology and Medicine
- Mindspring – Cellular Automata
- Conway’s Game Of Life
- Mirek’s Cellebration — Download free CA demo software
- A collection of Steven Wolfram articles on Cellular Automata
- Rudy Rucker’s Cellular Automata web site
- Wikipedia on Self Organization
- Scott Camazine’s lecture slides on self organization in biological systems.
- Starling flights over Termini, Italy — breathtaking !!!
- A video clip from “Swarm”
Self Similarity – Fractals
- What are fractals any why should I care?
- Fractals from Wikipedia.
- Fractals from Wolfram Research .
- Yale University fractal pages .
- Pictures of real fractals in nature .
- A blog on fractals and complexity. .
- Wikimedia’s take on fractals in nature. .
- A simple explanation of self similarity. .
Size and Scaling
- On The Scaling and Unity of Life – Lecture by Geoffrey West
- Of Mice and Elephants by George Johnson
- Size and Shape In Biology by T.F.Colton
- Size Matters: The Hiddern Mathematics of Life.
- The Origin of Universal Scaling Laws in Biology by Geoffrey West
- Sizes of Organisms : The Surface Area To Volume Ratio
