Math and physics, along with a little evolutionary luck, combine to help form some of the world’s most fascinating creatures.
logarithmic whorl of a nautilus. The milky iridescence of an abalone. The spiked turret of a queen conch. Precision, elegance, strength. The seashell is a consonance of form and function that both rivals and guides human creativity. From Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” to Frank Lloyd Wright’s design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York, shells have inspired artists and architects throughout history. Our admiration for seashells even predates writing.
While these straightforward mathematical rules account for many of the fundamental forms of seashells, a more convoluted set of interactions generates their most ostentatious features. Spines, knobs, and other ornaments arise from a mismatch between the growth rates of the soft-bodied mollusk’s mantle and its rigid shell. This mismatch creates bulges that are exaggerated with each new layer.
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