| The NNJ Virtual Library: Nature and Natural Forms |
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The Nexus Network Journal is an Amazon.com Associate! Books in the NNJ Virtual Library that are available from Amazon.com have been linked to their page. Just click on the linked titles for more information.
Books listed Alphabetically by Author
Cook, Theodore Andrea. The Curves of Life, 1914 (rpt. New York: Dover Publications, 1979). Subtitle: "An Account of Spiral Formations and Their Application to Growth in Nature, to Science and to Art; with special reference to the Manuscripts of Leonardo Da Vinci."
Doczi, Gyorgy. The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art & Architecture (Boulder: Shambala, 1981).
Ghyka, Matila. The Geometry of Art and Life, 1946 (slightly corrected reproduction, New York: Dover Publications, 1977). The Author believes that there are such things as "the mathematics of Life" and "the Mathematics of Art" and that the two coincide. Using simple mathematical formulas...Prof. Ghyka shows the fascinating relationships between geometry, aesthetics, nature and the human body (Comments from the book's cover). Please be aware that Ghyka's work has been subject to severe criticism recently. (NNJ Reader's comment).
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. (New York: Penguin Books, 1988. Though I have heard this book criticized as oversimplified, I found it a very interesting introduction to chaos and fractals.The clear writing style is helpful, and more precise information may be gleaned from further reading (Comments by Kim Williams).
Hastings, Harold, and George Sugihara. Fractals: A User's Guide for the Natural Sciences (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). "This book has many different fractal analysis techniques defined with examples. Some of the examples demonstrate how to use fractal procedure with data sets that are not large. There are also some listed computer programs that can be used" (Comments by Carl Bovill, author of Fractal Geometry in Architecture and Design). Out of stock.
Hildebrandt, Stefan and Anthony Tromba, The Parsimonious Universe: Shape and Form in the Natural World (Copernicus Books, 1996).
Mandelbrot, Benoit. The Fractal Geometry of Nature (New York: W.F. Freeman, 1983). "Mandelbrot is the person who brought together many diverse and strange areas of mathematics and explained and organized them as fractal geometry. Fractal is his term. This book is sometimes hard to follow, but wonderfully illustrated and fun to look and read through" (Comments by Carl Bovill, author of Fractal Geometry in Architecture and Design).
Newman, Rochelle and Donna M. Fowler. Space, Structure, & Form (The Golden Relationship : Art, Math and Nature) Referenced by Paul Calter in NNJ vol.2 no.2.
Pearce, Peter. Structure in Nature Is a Strategy for Design (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990).
Stevens, Peter S. Patterns in Nature. Out of print.
Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth. On Growth and Form (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Williams, Robert. The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure: A Source Book of Design (New York: Dover, 1979).
