This is the first mathematical study of sea shells with a potentially seminal character. In fact, the authors show for the first time via computer simulation that sea shells do not appear to grow normally in our Euclidean or Minkowskian space-time, but require a structurally more general geometry. This second edition preserves the original contributions and includes the first treatments on record of sea shells via the isoeuclidean geometry and the identification of their universal isorotational symmetry. The volume includes several beautiful color plates of computer visualization of complex sea shells. The first edition of this monograph was very well received by professional conchologists, theoretical physicists and mathematicians. This second edition should be part of all science libraries.
Breaking completely with the earlier generation of biologically-oriented scholars who first used computers to generate images resembling shell, ten papers by researchers from throughout the world report on the latest computer and mathematical modeling and investigation of how and why mollusks make shells the way they do. Among the topics are using frenet coordinates in advanced shell modelling, strange coiling-transitions in the cerion land-snails, and imaging tiny shells with the scanning electron microscope. Reproduced from typescripts. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
SciTech Book News (04/01/1996)
