Physics Colloquium: Archetypical forms resulting from growth in physics and biology; the special case of Fibonacci related spiral organization

Abstract:

Recognizable forms emerge from growth in a large variety of physical and biological phenomena. The reason for which our brain is well adapted to recognizing them is that they often resemble each other: they have archetypes.  The common language recognizes this fact by comparing for instance sand dunes to waves or dendritic crystals to trees. In physics the origin is often that very different growth phenomena have a common mathematical or topological structure, resulting in the formation of similar patterns. However in biology the convergences in structure can also be originated in the gain of similar evolutionary advantages. I will particularly discuss the origin of the Fibonacci related spiral organization observed in most land plants. By a remarkable convergence some brown algae have a similar organization in spite of the fact the two clades have diverged 1800 million years ago when they were both unicellular organisms.

Event Organizer: Prof. Alexander Palevsky