Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
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Fibonacci sequence

Boethiusinitialconsolationphilosophy
Image: Boethius, via Wikimedia Commons.

Physical Beauty, Mathematical Beauty, Scientific Beauty

Fifteen centuries ago, when he was falsely accused of treason, exiled from his home, and awaiting his execution, Boethius consoled himself with those words. Read More ›
numbers
Image Credit: corund - Adobe Stock

Breaking ChatGPT: Its Inability to Find Patterns in Numerical Sequences

Pattern completion tasks like this have been part of aptitude testing for a long time. The NSA and CIA, for instance, have used them to help in hiring analysts. Read More ›
Fermi Spirograph
Image: Fermi Spirograph, by NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration.

Unexplained — Maybe Unexplainable — Numbers Control the Universe

Richard Feynman called 1/137, the fine structure constant, “a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man.” Read More ›
geraniums
Photos: Geraniums, by Sabina Bajracharya, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Plant Diversity and Computer Programming

I asked the gardener how come, after all these years, the soil in my geranium pots is at roughly the same level. Read More ›
structuralism
Photo: A scene from The Biology of the Baroque, via Discovery Institute.

New Study Supports Michael Denton’s Structuralist View

The way an embryo develops shows a method of patterning that makes use of physical processes as if they conform to a predetermined plan. Read More ›
phyllotaxis
spiral
Photo credit: Stan Shebs [GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.

Plant Spiral Designs Still Unexplained

Even down to the level of molecules and genes, there doesn’t seem to be any physical reason for plants to grow “Golden Ratio” patterns. Read More ›

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