Michael Collins

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ASPECTS OF DESIGN IN THE NATURAL WORLD

• Michael Collins

London South Bank University Brunel
University,West London
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Summary

• Two MAJOR themes - Mathematics Perception
• Two ADDITIONAL themes - History Thermodynamics

Plus overheads from various publications
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Activities

• How was this approached?
• Design in Nature Series,WIT Press
• Discussions with senior UK biologists
• Rationale - identification of mainstream themes
• Reading over entire subject range
• Colour Design Conference and
• Special Issue of Journal
  

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Laws and Perception

• Natural laws hold over cosmos.
• - a regularly- behaved understandable universe
  
• Laws not just empirical but mathematical (o1,o2)
• In biology, perception of form is also crucial
  (o3A,B) - points to Goethe
  

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Design A

• What do we mean by design? wysiwyg
• Neutral on beliefs - positive or negative (o4)
• Engineering description of design (o5,o6) and
  creativity (o7)

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Design B

• Importance of robustness - leading to Robust
  Engineering Design (RED) (o8,o9)
• Engineering design methods can be applied in
  biology (o10,o11)

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History A

• Pythagoras (o12)
• Golden Ratio and Music (o13)
• Golden Ratio,Golden Ellipse,Logarithmic Spiral..
• very interesting - join mathematics
  perception

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History B

• Philosophy of mathematics goes back to Plato
• neo-Platonism - Gomatom (o14)
• neo-Platonism - Penrose
• neo-Platonism - Fokas

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History C

• Philosophy of biology goes back to Aristotle
• Aristotle - Gomatom (o15)
• Aristotle - Arber (o16)
• Aristotle - Webster Goodwin (o16B)
  

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History D

• Mathematical design of Greek theatre at Epidaurus
  (o17)
• Aesthetically,permanently,touristically
  attractive

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Renaissance A

• Re-discovery of Greek knowledge (o18)
• Leonardo da Vinci - the polymath (o19)
• Leonardo da Vinci - his holism (o20)

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Renaissance B

• Ruskin very pro-Gothic (1849-1852)
• The Stones of Venice (o21)
• Ruskin anti-Renaissance architecture (o22,o23)
  

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Renaissance C

• Ruskin very pro-Gothic (1849-1852)
• The Stones of Venice (o21)
• Ruskin anti-Renaissance architecture (o22,o23)
  

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T.A.Cook and Spirality A

• Cook spent 20 years (1895-1915) studying
  spirality in nature - The Curves of Life
• He essentially agreed with Ruskin - subtle
  differences were crucial to him (o24,o25)
• He was also pro-Gothic (o26)

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T.A.Cook and Spirality B

• He also stressed mathematics by way of Fibonacci
  numbers for leaf arrangements (o27)
• He described genius as imaginatively creative
• power, able to handle diminutive divergence
  from correct formality (o28)

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Conflict between Biology and Thermodynamics

• Darwin, Huxley Kelvin
• on the age of the earth
  (o29)
• Tyndall Tait
• on the claims of Mayer
  vis-a-vis Joule (o30)

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The Laws of Thermodynamics

• First Law of Thermodynamics (o31)
• Second Law of Thermodynamics (o32)
• Entropy (macroscopic,thermal) (o33)

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Free Energy-a crucialthermodynamic parameter for
living systems

• The definition of Free Energy (free enthalpy or
  Gibbs function) (o34)
• The correspondence between fuels and food (o35)
  

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The System Conceptin thermodynamics

• Part of the genius of thermodynamics is the
  concept of system system boundary
• There are three kinds (o36A)
• isolated - no matter or energy can cross
  bdry
• closed - energy only can cross boundary
• open - both matter and energy can cross
  bdary

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Thermodynamic Systems and biology

• closed - the biosphere (o36B)
• of prime importance (Wicken)
• open - living organisms,cells (o36B)

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Shannon entropy

• Entropy defined in o33 macroscopically and
  thermally
• Boltzmann ,1872, showed entropy can also
• be defined microscopically and statistically
• Shannon ,1948,defined entropy in terms of
  information theory - (doubt about this)- (o37)
• Tribus ,1961, defining entropy as uncertainty,
  developed a full thermodynamic theory (o38)

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Prigogines Thermodynamics

• Far-From-Equilibrium Systems (o39)
• Irreversible Processes and Self-Organization
  (o40)
• Dissipative Structures (o40)
• All apply to living systems

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Cosmic Evolution A(after Chaisson)

• neo-Darwinism subset of broad evolutionary
  scheme (o41)
• work of Layzer (1975,etc)
• cosmic expansion.prime mover for.hierarchy of
  structures throughout the Universe (o41)

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Cosmic Evolution B

• Graphs of cosmic temperature and information
• with time (Chaisson) (o42)
• 3-D graph of energy and information densities
  with time (Ji) (o42)
• Similar graphs of Hawking and Goonatilake

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Cosmic Evolution C

• Chaisson uses free energy rate densities to
  compare order of structures in Universe (o43)
• stars,planets animals,brains,society
• this measure of complexity is increasing sharply
• with time (o43)
• similar graphs of Hawking and Goonatilake
• can this energy/information approach be applied
  in design?

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Biocybernetics of Ji A

• Generic model of machine (o44A)
• Application to living cell (o44A)
• Bhopalator model of living cell (o44B)

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Biocybernetics of Ji BThe human body

• Piscatawaytor model (o45)
• Four control systems - nervous,circulatory,
  endocrine, immune - affect
• Macroscopic voluntary bodily motions
  intentional microscopic processes in brain
• Importance of voluntary control (o45)

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Dissipative structuresand bifurcations

• Jis proposal of space- time- dependent
  biochemical structures in cell (o46)
• Consistent with dissipative structures of
  Prigogine
• Focus on calcium and cytoskeleton (o46)
• Bifurcation behaviour towards alternative
  states.(o47)

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Morphogenesis and bifurcations

• Webster and Goodwins study on the effect of
  calcium variation on cytoskeleton mechanics (o48)
• Consistent with Jis focus
• Ruling equations give spontaneous bifurcations
• Wickens similar description (o49)

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Chaos,attractors and pattern formation

• Dissipative structures display bifurcations
• Cascade of bifurcations leads to chaotic
  behaviour
• Within the chaos a range of preferred steady
  states may appear
• These are termed attractors in phase-space,which
  is the set of variables describing system
  behaviour
• This can explain pattern formation in biology (
  o51 and The Self-Made Tapestry,Philip Ball)

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History and bifurcations

• Recent growth of complexity in the Universe is
• a)within living systems
• b)by living systems-essentially homo
  sapiens
• Goonatilake terms b) exosomatic
• This growth results in industrial/cultural
  advances
• Such history may be described as a series of
  bifurcations (o52)

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Closure Ahow chaotic is evolution?

• Presentation has shown complexity ,free energy
  ,dissipative structures all relevant within
  Nature
• Chaotic behaviour gives alternative states
  sensitive to initial conditions so consistent
  with natural selection
• Attractors means robustness emerges and can
  describe morphogenesis and pattern formation
• How much can chaos describe evolution?
• Lewin Goodwin (o53),Ball Goodwin (o54)

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Closure Bthe nano-world

• Behaviour at molecular level same in natural and
  engineered worlds
• Molecular dimensions merge into nanoscale
• where continuum concept breaks down for both
  solids fluids (o55)
• Mathematical methods must be same for all fields
• For fluids - Lattice Boltzmann/Monte Carlo
• MC invented by Kelvin (o56)

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Closure Cbeauty

• Beauty maths (Fokas) (o57)
• Beauty in spirals (Cook) (o57)
• Beauty in architecture (Ruskin) (o58)
• Beauty,function engineering (French) (o59)

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Closure Dcredits

• Design in Nature Series ,WIT Press (o60)
• Contents ,Volume 2 ,DIN Series (o61)
• Colour Design Conference ,2003, (o62)
• Special Colour Issue of Optics Laser
  Technology ,2005

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Closure E

• Many thanks for watching this presentation!
• MWC 25-5-05