# When nature and geometry intersect **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-and-geometry-intersect/1018559 "2025-05-20T00:10:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-and-geometry-intersect/1018559/1 "2025-05-20T00:10:18Z")
The built world offers all sorts of stark geometric compositions to explore. The natural world offers often softer organic compositions. Yin and yang, hard and soft, different photographic worlds, isn’t it? Oh, hell, no. Nature can produce powerfully geometric structures. The built world can flow organically. Let’s see some of your photos that illustrate this. I’ll go first: Deadwood geometry dancing against the sky: [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gme3wshdrukjfhbnrj4ittzf/bafkreia2kwcoyiuydyc6rwmqkju4w7t67yktrpdj7tlzuqfby4vad6x75y@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gme3wshdrukjfhbnrj4ittzf/bafkreia2kwcoyiuydyc6rwmqkju4w7t67yktrpdj7tlzuqfby4vad6x75y@jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-and-geometry-intersect/1018559/2 "2025-05-22T11:20:09Z")
Especially on the microscopic scale there are plenty of examples. Lots of regular tesselations and geometric forms, fibonacci spirals and almost-fibonacci dpirals, and so forth. But you’re not looking for strict periodic structures. So I offer hexagonal basaltic columns, such as Giant’s Causeway and a host of other, less well-known structures. They’re hexagonal, like a beehive, but nowhere near as regular. It finally occurred to me that these must be frozen _Benard Cells_ made when the molten basalt was cooling. That explains the almost-regular shape. > **[Giant's Causeway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_Causeway#/media/File:Chaussee_geants_prismes_rouges.jpg)** > > The Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir) is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills. > It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a national nature reserve by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland in 1987. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Gian... > **[Rayleigh–Bénard convection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93B%C3%A9nard_convection)** > > In fluid thermodynamics, Rayleigh–Bénard convection is a type of natural convection, occurring in a planar horizontal layer of fluid heated from below, in which the fluid develops a regular pattern of convection cells known as Bénard cells. Such systems were first investigated by Joseph Valentin Boussinesq and Anton Oberbeck in the 19th century. This phenomenon can also manifest where a species denser than the electrolyte is consumed from below and generated at the top. Bénard–Rayleigh c Buoyancy... ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-and-geometry-intersect/1018559/3 "2025-05-22T18:19:41Z")
This is not so strongly geometric as I’d like, but I just took it a couple of weeks ago and I like it. [![](https://greenwoodsoftware.com/misc/pink-flowers.jpg) ](https://greenwoodsoftware.com/misc/pink-flowers.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-and-geometry-intersect/1018559/4 "2025-05-22T21:08:52Z")
Perhaps more familiar to Americans, or at least more local, is Devil’s Tower, WY. For a different sort of geometry, how about romanesco? [![](https://www.lakewinds.coop/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Romanesco.jpg) ](https://www.lakewinds.coop/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Romanesco.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-nature-and-geometry-intersect/1018559/5 "2025-05-22T23:06:30Z")
Launaea arborescens, commonly known as Mol-albina or Wire Netting Bush is a plant that is common around the Mediterranean and is composed of a dense network of branched spines - the geometric nature is difficult to photograph - when seen IRL, it looks just like a hexagonal mesh. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Launaea_arborescens.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Launaea_arborescens.jpg) Hard to believe this plant is closely related to lettuce!