Bifurcation, Trees and Fractals...

Thinking a lot about tree structures... and the fractal nature of reality...

From the basic concept of bifurcation, to more complex node and path structures.

Lucifer Yellow labled pyramidal neuron and TH-ir fibers (blue)): GAO Lab

Our neurons organise into these structures and we organise our society using these basic structures, from the way our streets and buildings are organised, to the way we organise business, and even our knowledge.

Many of these structures take on the attributes of fractals, as you look closer at the smaller elements, the same patterns emerge...

Feigenbaum bifurcation fractal

I made this fractal plot on a free bit of software called winfract, which is based on an older bit of command line software called fractint- the page for both is here: http://www.fractint.org/. Another fun program for exploring fractals is Fractal Extreme - which allows zooms to be made quickly, though it costs (there's a free demo that's fun to play with though) - available here: http://www.cygnus-software.com/index.html

Here's a nice video of a fractal zoom into a Mandelbrot Fractal:


Does it remind you of anything? It reminds me of zooming in with Google Earth, we can see the Earth is like a big fractal, as you zoom into a large bay area you see it is made of smaller bays, made of smaller bays etc. Life is a Fractal.

on a more humorous note: check out this Google Earth Zoom: