Bibliographic Information

On growth and form

by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

(Canto)

Cambridge University Press, 1992, c1961

Abridged ed. / edited by John Tyler Bonner

  • : pbk

Available at  / 10 libraries

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Note

Description based on reprinting, 1995

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Why do living things and physical phenomena take the form they do? D'Arcy Thompson's classic On Growth and Form looks at the way things grow and the shapes they take. Analysing biological processes in their mathematical and physical aspects, this historic work, first published in 1917, has also become renowned for the sheer poetry of its descriptions. A great scientist sensitive to the fascinations and beauty of the natural world tells of jumping fleas and slipper limpets; of buds and seeds; of bees' cells and rain drops; of the potter's thumb and the spider's web; of a film of soap and a bubble of oil; of a splash of a pebble in a pond. D'Arcy Thompson's writing, hailed as 'good literature as well as good science; a discourse on science as though it were a humanity', is now made available for a wider readership, with a foreword by one of today's great populisers of science, explaining the importance of the work for a new generation of readers.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction John Tyler Bonner VII
  • 1. Introductory
  • 2. On magnitude
  • 3. The forms of cells
  • 4. The forms of tissues, of cell-aggregates
  • 5. On spicules and spicular skeletons
  • 6. The equiangular spiral
  • 7. The shapes of horns and of teeth or tusks
  • 8. On form and mechanical efficiency
  • 9. On the theory of transformations, or the comparison of related forms
  • 10. Epilogue
  • Index.

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Related Books: 1-1 of 1

  • Canto

    Cambridge University Press

Details

  • NCID
    BA36399131
  • ISBN
    • 0521437768
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge
  • Pages/Volumes
    xxii, 345 p.
  • Size
    22 cm
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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