On Growth And Form
Created | Updated Aug 21, 2005
Book Review: (part of the Popular Science Book Project - A4166336)
D'Arcy Thompson - On Growth And Form
A classic and most unusual piece of writing, examining the form and development of plants and animals from a mathematical and physical perspective, beginning with an examination on the sizes of creatures, progressing through an examination of the forms of cells, simple organisms and tissues, then moving through the geometry of spiral forms to studies of the mechanics of skeletons and the graphical transformations that relate the forms of different species.
First published in 1917, with a second edition in 1941, an edited, abridged version dating from 1961 (and with numerous republishings since) is the likeliest version to be encountered, and is relatively close to the 1917 edition.
Given the date of the book, it clearly predates much of modern biochemistry and genetics, and also doesn't really stray into discussions about evolution, and as such is not to be relied upon as a *fully* accurate description of how and why lifeforms grow the way they do, yet by taking a non-genetic approach, the book does illustrate superbly that some developmental outcomes may be much more to do with simple physics than inbuilt design, and provides a most useful alternative perspective.
The standard of writing is exceptionally high, and it is indeed a work of literature as well as a work of science, well worth reading for the purity and power of the language, even for someone who may not understand all of the subject matter.
There is some mathematical content, but not enough to make the book inaccessible to the less mathematical reader, and the breadth of the explanations would make this book especially worth reading for anyone keen on physics or engineering, as well as those with an interest in biology.
It is hard to recommend this book too highly to any potentially interested reader.
D'Arcy Thompson - On Growth And Form
A classic and most unusual piece of writing, examining the form and development of plants and animals from a mathematical and physical perspective, beginning with an examination on the sizes of creatures, progressing through an examination of the forms of cells, simple organisms and tissues, then moving through the geometry of spiral forms to studies of the mechanics of skeletons and the graphical transformations that relate the forms of different species.
First published in 1917, with a second edition in 1941, an edited, abridged version dating from 1961 (and with numerous republishings since) is the likeliest version to be encountered, and is relatively close to the 1917 edition.
Given the date of the book, it clearly predates much of modern biochemistry and genetics, and also doesn't really stray into discussions about evolution, and as such is not to be relied upon as a *fully* accurate description of how and why lifeforms grow the way they do, yet by taking a non-genetic approach, the book does illustrate superbly that some developmental outcomes may be much more to do with simple physics than inbuilt design, and provides a most useful alternative perspective.
The standard of writing is exceptionally high, and it is indeed a work of literature as well as a work of science, well worth reading for the purity and power of the language, even for someone who may not understand all of the subject matter.
There is some mathematical content, but not enough to make the book inaccessible to the less mathematical reader, and the breadth of the explanations would make this book especially worth reading for anyone keen on physics or engineering, as well as those with an interest in biology.
It is hard to recommend this book too highly to any potentially interested reader.
