Scientists have discovered a mysterious universal pattern that “connects a bus system in Mexico and chicken eyes to quantum physics and number theory.” MentalFloss summarizes the formerly hidden phenomenon, known as universality or disordered hyperuniformity:
In math, universality is what determines the spacing between solutions in a large matrix of random numbers. The numbers that go into the matrices may themselves be random, but when they interact, they produce a predictable outcome.
Explore this pattern found throughout nature and history in this Quanta Magazine video by Emily Driscoll of BonSci Films.
Related reading: A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order and In the eye of a chicken, a new state of matter comes into view.
Patterns! Follow this with The Kresling-Pattern and our origami world and a woodworker creates Fibonacci Spiral shavings.
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