Chaos teaches us that simple systems can behave in complex ways, affecting managers, politicians, and

scientists. The world cannot be completely chaotic, as it is simple and underlying. Our language
describes our world based on underlying simplicities, such as "foxes chase rabbits." However, when we
look at the details, the simplicity is lost, as the fox must recognize, a process that requires a complex
system to function. The author discusses the complexity of nature, focusing on the actions of animals,
such as vision, pattern recognition, and locomotion. They argue that these actions are influenced by
various factors, including physiology, neuroscience, cell biology, chemistry, quantum mechanics, and the
Theory of Everything. The author suggests that nature uses this complex network of cause and effect or
sets things up so that most complexity doesn't matter. They propose complexity theory, which argues
that large-scale simplicities emerge from complex interactions of large numbers of components. The
author discusses the emergence of complexity theory in science, focusing on three topics: the shape of
water drops, the dynamic behavior of animal populations, and the strange patterns in plant-petal
numerology. They argue that complexity theory is gaining popularity in science, and each piece of work
solves a long-standing puzzle about mathematical patterns in the natural world, opening our eyes to
features of nature we might not have appreciated otherwise. The author reveals that the answer to the
"teardrop" shape of a drop of water was not found long ago, despite extensive research on fluid flow. A
century ago, physicist Lord Rayleigh created a tiny drawing of a detached drop. In 1990, mathematician
Howell Peregrine and colleagues at Bristol University discovered a more complex and interesting process.
The droplet forms a bulging droplet, narrowing into a long, thin cylindrical thread. Falling drops of water
are observed to be incredibly busy, with a spherical drop hanging from its end. The thread narrows and
develops a sharp point, resembling a knitting needle touching an orange. The orange falls away, pulsating
slightly. The sharp end of the needle rounds off, and tiny waves travel back up the needle, making it look
like a string of pearls. The top end rounds off, and a series of waves travel along it. This phenomenon has
not been studied in great mathematical detail, as the singularity is the tip of the needle. The University
of Chicago researchers X. D. Shi, Michael Brenner, and Sidney Nagel have discovered that the detaching
drop's shape depends on the fluid's viscosity. They conducted experiments using mixtures of water and
glycerol, computer simulations, and similarity solutions. They discovered that for more viscous fluids, a
second narrowing of the thread occurs before the singularity forms, and at higher viscosities, there are
three narrowings. This phenomenon increases without limit, ignoring the atomic structure of matter. The
study also highlights the lack of biological realism in mathematical models of population dynamics. In
1994, Jacquie McGlade, David Rand, and Howard Wilson conducted a study on the relationship between
biologically realistic models and traditional equations. They used a computer simulation to study the
interactions of large numbers of agents, using a "cellular automaton" model. They considered traditional
foxes and rabbits, assigning each square a color and setting rules to model the main biological influences
at work. Examples of rules include moving to the position of grass, eating a rabbit, breeding new rabbits,
and dying a fox that has not eaten for a certain number of moves. McGlade's group created an artificial
ecology using a computer game where each move generates a new configuration of rabbits, foxes, grass,
and rock. This game, resembling a dynamical system, allows for experiments that are impossible or too
expensive to perform in a real ecology. They discovered that the size of a region provides the most
interesting information, and they observed a region of that size and recorded the changing rabbit
population. They used chaos theory methods to determine if the series of numbers was deterministic or
random, and if so, what its attractor looked like. Researchers discovered that 94% of the rabbit
population's dynamics can be explained by deterministic motion on a chaotic attractor in a four-
dimensional phase space. This discovery suggests that models with small variables may be more realistic
than previously assumed. It also suggests that simple large-scale features can emerge from complex
ecological games. Another example of a mathematical regularity of nature that emerges from complexity
is the number of petals in flowers. While genes may specify certain information, they may not determine
everything. Genetic influences have flexibility, but physics, chemistry, and dynamics produce
mathematical regularities. Plants display mathematical regularities, including Fibonacci numbers, which
are the sum of the two preceding numbers. These numbers are found in various features, such as petals
in sunflowers and florets in pine cones. Leonardo Fibonacci invented the Fibonacci series in 1200 for a
problem about rabbit population growth. The key question is why we observe a preponderance of
Fibonacci numbers, despite genetics allowing plants to choose any number of petals or scales. The
answer is likely due to a more mathematical mechanism. The Fibonacci numbers, a mathematical pattern
in plant development, may have originated from natural selection and evolved into DNA codes. Early
approaches to understanding plant growth were descriptive, but recent work by French mathematical
physicists Stt'iphane Douady and Yves Couder provides a more dramatic insight. They developed a theory
of plant growth dynamics using computer models and laboratory experiments, which accounts for the
Fibonacci pattern. The basic idea is that the tip of a plant's shoot contains the development of main
features, with the apex at the center. The primordia form of a star is a complex arrangement of features,
including spiral shapes and Fibonacci numbers. The most important spiral is formed by considering the
primordia's order of appearance, with successive primordia sparsely spaced along a tightly wound spiral
called the generative spiral. The human eye picks out Fibonacci spirals because they are formed from
primordia that appear near each other in space. The essential quantitative feature is the divergence
angle between successive primordia, which is usually close to 137.5°, as emphasized by crystallographers
Auguste Bravais and his brother Louis. The ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers approaches 0.618034,
with the limiting value being the golden number (phi). The angle between successive primordia is the
"golden angle" of 360(1-<1»° = 137.5°. In 1907, G. Van Iterson plotted successive points on a tightly
wound spiral separated by angles of 137.5°. The number of Fibonacci numbers in the two families
depends on the tightness of the spiral. Douady and Couder found a dynamic explanation for the golden
angle, building on H. Vogel's 1979 insight that placing successive primordia along the generative spiral
efficiently packs them together. The golden angle, a concept in quantum mechanics, is a result of simple
dynamics rather than a postulate. It is believed that the golden angle is the most irrational number, as it
is "badly approximable" by rational numbers. Douady and Couder's experiment, which involved a circular
dish filled with silicone oil and a vertical magnetic field, showed that the golden angle can be obtained
through simple dynamics. The elements of the primordia form at equal intervals of time and migrate
radially at a specified initial velocity. The elements repel each other, ensuring that the radial motion
continues and each new element appears as far as possible from its immediate predecessors. This
system would satisfy Vogel's criterion of efficient packing, and the golden angle appears of its own
accord. Botany researchers Douady and Couder discovered that the divergence angle in plants depends
on the interval between drops, creating a complex branching pattern of wiggly curves. The main branch
is close to a divergence angle of 137.5°, and along it are all possible pairs of consecutive Fibonacci
numbers. The gaps between branches represent "bifurcations," where the dynamics undergo significant
changes. Although not perfectly mathematical, plants don't need their genes to tell them how to space
their primordia; it's a partnership of physics and genetics. These examples reveal the deep mathematical
regularities that can be detected in natural forms and provide clues for mathematical detectives to solve.