As their results began to crystallize, at first they didn’t notice the striking patterns emerging. But a colleague who reviewed their work spotted the famed Fibonacci numbers—a list whose entries have ...

A variation of a puzzle called the “pick-up sticks problem” asks the following question: If I have some number of sticks with random lengths between 0 and 1, what are the chances that no three of ...

What do pine cones and paintings have in common? A 13th century Italian mathematician named Leonardo of Pisa. Better known by his pen name, Fibonacci, he came up with a number sequence that keeps ...

Pine cones. Stock-market quotations. Sunflowers. Classical architecture. Reproduction of bees. Roman poetry. What do they have in common? In one way or another, these and many more creations of nature ...

A spruce cone is marked to highlight its fibonacci number sequence. That sequence, explained by 13th century Italian mathematician Fibonacci, plays out in plants — from pine cones to pineapples — and ...

A 3D model of a 407-million-year-old plant fossil has overturned thinking on the evolution of leaves. The research has also led to fresh insights about spectacular patterns found in plants. The ...

I'm not a botanist but rather an amateur naturalist, captivated by the myriad aspects of nature that surround me. Despite not being an astronomer, the Big Bang and the celestial elements it birthed ...