The reason patterns often appear in nature is simple: The same basic physical or chemical processes occur in many patterned substances and organisms as they form. Whether in plants and animals or ...

A fascinating class of patterns, often encountered in nature as meandering cracks on rocks, dried-out fields and tectonic plates, is produced by the fracture of solids1. Here we describe the ...

This lattice pattern fractures and bends as the elephants grow, creating millions of channels across their skin. The result looks rather like the cracks that form in dried mud, in damaged asphalt ...

Each of these architectures allowed for new behaviors in a 3D-printed element once hardened. The Bouligand architecture, for example, takes advantage of weak interfaces to make a material more ...

According to another scientist on the expedition, Dr Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic. "We're seeing very dramatic changes; from the ...

Depending on the pattern made by the cracks, ... we call it “reality,” but when we see patterns made by nature or ones where other people ... The cracks in turtle shells, for example, ...

Cracks in material are not always unwanted; sometimes, they can be manipulated to produce micro and nanoscale patterns. Here, Kim et al. report a cracking-assisted nanofabrication technique based ...

Science and nature journalist Philip Ball looks below the surface at how and why certain forms appear in nature. Patterns in Nature explores world's chaotic beauty Skip to main content ...

What if the inherent weaknesses of a material actually made houses and buildings stronger during wildfires and earthquakes? Purdue University researchers have 3D-printed cement ...