Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

Discovery

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Discovery: Science Stories: Series 5: D'Arcy Thompson

Magazines & Reviews

Putting Maths in Biology - D’Arcy Thompson

02/04/2018 GMT

D'Arcy Thompson

Science Stories: Series 5

BBC World Service - Discovery, Science Stories: Series 5, D'Arcy ThompsonSearch BBC

A man who put maths into biology and saw physics in shells, seeds and bees 100 years ago

How 100 years ago D'Arcy Thompson showed us that nature's shapes - of flowers, shells and honeycombs - are dictated by maths.

One hundred years ago D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson published On Growth and Form, a book with a mission to put maths into biology. He showed how the shapes, forms and growth processes we see in the living world aren’t some arbitrary result of evolution’s blind searching, but are dictated by mathematical rules. A flower, a honeycomb, a dragonfly’s wing: it’s not sheer chance that these look the way they do. But can these processes be explained by physics? D'Arcy Thompson loved nature’s shapes and influenced a whole new field of systems biology, architects, designers and artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. 

Presented by Phillip Ball.

Picture: Corn shell, Getty Images

Discovery: Science Stories: Series 5

Surprising stories from the history of science.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Discovery

Science Stories: Series 5

D'Arcy Thompson

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service