Monday, January 2, 2012

Why Are Patterns So Important?

Why are patterns in nature so significant? Why does our human cognition hone in on patterns so readily? Why is it that we overlook some patterns and perceive others?


Circinnate Vernation in a Fiddlehead Fern

These are all questions I’ve pondered as a scientist, a botanist, an anthropologist, and an artist for many years.


Cohosh circinnate vernation

When I was a father of young children I became aware that babies see patterns first, even before they can make out details. So a parent’s face is a recognizable pattern of lines, shapes, and light.

Geranium Circinnate Vernation

Since pattern is one of the first things we see it makes sense that we’re pattern-oriented throughout our lives. As a college professor I try to teach my subject within a pattern of ideas. I think it makes more sense to teach in context, making connections whenever possible, than just teaching factoids about science.

Circinnate vernation

So one reason patterns are so important is that they are connected to the core of human visual cognition. This seems to make sense in a design context, since our designed environments, whether gardens, sculpture, parks, buildings, furniture, clothing, or cities, are an outgrowth of our thought process.

Patterns are also important because they teach us about nature. Once we discern the right patterns we can make conclusions about relationships in the living world.

Sometimes the patterns are easy to detect. For example, all monocot flowers are built in multiples of three:

Monocot flower


Tradescantia



Water Hyacinth

Sometimes patterns are harder to detect. For example, the series of helices that comprise reproductive structures are found throughout the gymnosperms and angiosperms:

Pollen


Milkweed seeds

Sunflower Fibonacci Spiral

Arum flower (Spadix) closeup

And sometimes patterns are “hidden,” either too small to detect without instrumentation (like DNA), or too subtle for our everyday observations.

My goal as a botanist and designer has been to detect these subtle patterns and learn from them.


Lots more to talk about on this topic. I would love to hear your comments.

57 comments:

  1. Wow, I love patterns and plants too. Thank you for this deep view on both.

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  2. im from Colombia and i´m a teach of biology.....and i love the botanical............ good article. in the mind and in the human behavior also more patterns.......... why not running typological species concept. bay

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  3. I agree that patters are an important part of understanding many things. Looking at the two flowers (sunflower and peruvian lily) in lab they both have petals and receptacles. However, other than those the two flowers have a different composition but overall both flowers carry out the process of pollinating in different ways.

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  4. I agree that patterns are found everywhere in nature although during the lab today I don't find as many patterns between the two flowers that I dissected and observed. I looked at a sunflower and Peruvian lily which both have receptacles, stigmas and anthers but looks much different

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  5. What I learned from lab today was that at first glance something may appear to be totally different than what it actually looks like. Like the article we read about how the artifacts are buried and hidden a flower has many hidden parts also! There are so many aspects that one does not see at first glance, but when you look deeper into it you discover a whole new look to the flower.

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  6. There is a sameness or homology in patterns. Whether looking at a flower or a face, there is a distinct pattern that humans are attracted to most likely because they are the easier thing to detect. I always notice patterns first before I am able to look past them and analyze further. I feel like all patterns have a meaning --- why they are designed in that way or what they mean about that certain object or what they are for. I feel we overlook some patterns because we are so used to seeing them that they become normalized. It is important to notice all patterns because the patterns are sometimes the most important aspect of nature.
    Shayna LaSala

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  7. Patterns are definitely important to human life no matter what you apply them to. Whether it be in nature or just simply in life, people use patterns to recognize something familiar, something they've seen before. Homologies are similar characteristics due to relatedness. (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/lines_04) So homologies can be used as patterns, both are related and have similar characteristics and can be a multitude of things including color, size, shape, etc. Today in lab we dissected two different flowers and saw how similar and dissimilar they are. After dissecting, we realize that despite both being flowers, they have different parts that contribute to making them what they are. For example, we see a pattern that both of these flowers have petals. But in a Sunflower the petals are called ray flowers and in a Peruvian Lily they are called the corolla. It's interesting to see how to things you relate together actually in fact, have many differences.

    Morgan O'Neill

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  8. This article, as well as the lab, exhibits that patterns are important for a number of reasons. Our ability to recognize and analyze patterns helps us to develop as individuals and to understand our world around us. Furthermore, it is art that helps us frame these perceptions. I was able to recognize the differences between the peruvian lily and the iris, for example, by observing the art (or patterns) of the flowers. My sketches are a form of art that illustrate the foundation of each flower.

    Talia Glickman-Simon

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  9. Indira Plaisimond
    We are biologically hardwired to recognize patterns, a concept that applies to almost all visual concepts. The flowers we dissected (sunflower and Peruvian lily) had similar anatomical features that came in different shapes and sizes. It's fascinating that all monocot flowers are multiples of threes, which helps us categorize and distinguish similarities/differences more easily. The natural categorization of these plants hint that evolutionary similarities worked in the favor of the plants (hence why they evolved the way they are) and shows that pattern serves as an adaptive measure to ensure survival.

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  10. I think that patterns are very important in nature and we see them in nearly all nature. For example, in the plants that we were looking at today we saw many patterns. The sunflower had many disc florets that were side by side, creating a pattern, surrounding the ovule. Furthermore, since each flower, even though drastically different, had pedicels, the pattern of pedicel DNA is a common thread between two different flowers.

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  11. It is very interesting how patterns are everywhere in nature, even in places we don't a first see them. In a flower, for example, I would never have thought previous to this lab as a certain number of petals being a pattern, but upon closer inspection, something as simple as a particular number in nature can be viewed as a pattern used to identify something. Even something as simple as a color scheme of a flower, which is used by insects to identify them, can be viewed as a flower's unique natural pattern in this way.

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  12. Michael Kagan
    I agree that patterns definitely play a very important role in revealing an aspect of nature to us as scientists. Although I dissected two seemingly different flowers today, a lily and a sunflower, I found that there are a lot of similarities between the two and that indicates to me that they must have a homological relationship. By this I mean that they both must have come from the same parent plant at some point in their genetic history. I am making this conclusion based on the many similarities I observed in the two flowers like their similar stigma structures, ovary placement within the flower, and protective receptacles that house the ovaries.

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  13. I think are part of natures beauty and it is always interesting to see them in nature. The flowered I dissected, the sunflower and the lily, have many patterns inside and outside of their bodies. I also found it interesting that monocot flowers grow in sets of three. This must help us know what type of flower they are.

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  15. I agree with your statement that patterns play a huge role in human development. The fact that babies learn their who their parents are through the patterns on their face denotes homology, and is something that I have never quite thought about before. The lab that we did today explains the true importance of patterns in nature. I realized this while examining the similarities and differences between the Iris and the Lily. Each has a distinct pattern that makes them unique and identifiable, just like a face to a baby.

    Dana Friedman

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  16. Dominick Troendle
    Throughout human life we have used patterns to explain many natural phenomena. You have pointed out some in your post and one that stood out to me was math. Math works in patterns, that's all it really is. Everything in math is connected through patterns just like DNA is organized in patters. Scientists noticed patters between animals while studying evolution. One pattern led to the discovery of homologous structures. These structures serve similar purposes in different animals. The relationship in purpose is a pattern in life.

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  17. I think its fascinating to look at the world in terms of patterns, since I usually don't. I love that example of the baby recognizing the pattern of its parent's face and I think that the patterns in flowers were apparent in today's lab. Although they vary in aesthetics, both the sunflower and lily I dissected had the reproductive organs necessary for the plants to reproduce. In my art class we learned about the elements and principles of art which I think are applied here because we use them to recognize all visual patterns. When examining the flowers I not only noticed the aesthetics of them but for the first time noticed their reproduction functions.

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  18. Patterns are necessary aspects of all kinds of life on Earth. While some patterns are quite obvious, I definitely agree after today's lab that they are sometimes hard to detect. Today's flower dissection lab underlined the fact that a homologous relationship exists within angiosperms like sunflowers and lilies, as their inside reproductive systems are constructed quite similarly. This allows me to conclude that they must have a common ancestor, just as humans that walk the Earth today. I hope that the patterns we detect in future labs are less frustrating to discover... or that I can begin a new pattern for myself of being more receptive to biological phenomena that we uncover over the rest of the semester.

    Jessica Morin

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  19. Patterns are very important throughout history because they show that different species of flowers have similar shapes, reproduction features, and all together parts. This does not only apply to flowers but other species too. Specifically, our lab targeted floers to emphasize the importance of patterns and how we can link different things with our basic cognitive skills.

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  20. Sasha Engelman
    I feel like one can find homologous characteristics in so many different things, whether it is flowers, people, plants, animals, or even objects. I find it interesting that as babies, we are born with the ability to detect patterns so easily, and at the same time, scientists are also trying to detect patterns in various species. In todays lab we also had the opportunity to detect patterns in two different flowers, from the same species. Even though doth the Lily and the Snapdragon flowers look totally different on the outside, there are patterns on the inside that make them so much alike.

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  21. Oreoluwa Taiwo
    I agree that patterns within life are very important especially in living organisms. While not all patterns are easy to detect they are everywhere. Patterns help to classify objects and link similarities within and outside of different species. Patterns also show an aspect in which you can connect science to art. I studied 2 different lilies today and while on the outside they looked different there where certain patterns that show why they both have a spot in the lily family. This was a clear example of homology

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  22. I think patterns are an amazing way to depict the uniqueness of organisms in nature. In addition, and in relation to this blogpost, I think patterns are a wonderful way to determine homology in organisms. As patterns being so distinctively related with our sense of sight and visual cognition, this allows us to understand and connect to nature on a personal level. Furthermore, by using our sense of sight to recognize patterns in nature, we can feel a connection in the determination of similarities and differences across a wide variety of organisms.

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  23. Patterns are very important when examining things in life especially nature. While studying plants and flowers patterns can help a person make connections and visualize the different parts of a plant. In today's lab we detected the patterns in two different types if flowers. They shared similarities as well as many differences. Patterns made it possible for me to understand the anatomy of each.

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  25. It seems that patterns are everywhere around us and are a part of our everyday life. In nature specifically, there seem to be patterns just about everywhere which we humans can easily observe. When comparing two different flowers there were substantial similarities or "patterns" which only exemplified the fact that such patterns are prevalent just about everywhere in nature.

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  26. Isabel Vera

    I would definitely have to agree that patterns are crucial to our development as human beings, our education and cognitive process, and our general interest and understanding of why things are the way they are. As you stated here, patterns are among the first things we observe and consider as babies, and as we grow, patters continue to reside among our first impressions of what we encounter. Hence, the importance of pattern is enormous in our contemplation of what lies underneath what we see, why it’s there, how evolution played into the current state of whatever we are observing, and the underlying meaning that makes up what we are observing. As humans, we often create art from the inside out, and we take pride in the final exterior that draws in viewers and gains us recognition. However, it is only what is within this patterned exterior that illustrates the greater meaning or purpose and the effort that goes into the final product.

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  27. Kate Schade

    Patterns are everything, in nature, in culture, in every day life, and in the psychology behind people and our decisions. Patterns have played an important role in peoples upbringing from the beginning. As you said, children first recognize patterns of familiar things, faces, voices, colors, lines, etc. The patterns in these flowers, and in nature in general, are there for a reason other than beauty and we can discover those reasons through observation and analysis - also known as, science.

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  28. Tali Sandel
    While patterns are in anything, as you have mentioned, they are not always easy to detect. Some patterns are so common that we simply dismiss them as a pattern and instead register it as an average everyday sight. For example, a child first notices patterns because it is not yet immune to the patterns that reoccur in everyday life such as the wrinkles on a parents face or even the seeds in a pine cone. Today in lab only after carefully studying the and dissecting my flowers did I realize the patterns of the flowers and of the stigma. This is proof that individuals become used to the presence of patterns in everyday life and must struggle to recognize them in order to further examine.

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  29. Haley Carter

    Though patterns can be detected in everything, I think the most fascinating patterns are the ones found in nature. I sometimes think patterns are easily overlooked, but there is something about earth's natural patterns that are quite amazing and beautiful. I think what is particularly interesting that babies are in tune to patterns before they are able to speak and communicate clearly. It is sort of crazy to think that our brain is naturally drawn to notice patterns as a cognitive way of learning. Today in lab, I naturally looked for patterns between the two different flowers I dissected without even realizing I was doing so. I was also observant of the patterns of the petals. Patterns give us a better and clearer understanding of how things operate, and in the case of this lab it helped me to make connections between the two species of flower.

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  30. Yina Cordero
    This post made me realize why I was so attracted to the flower I chose on flickr because I immediately loved the symmetry and the pattern that it had and it fascinated me to think that this was just done with time and evolution. It also made me realize why similar patterns in flowers might indicate a common ancestry which makes it much easier for scientists to study flowers and find their origin. It makes more sense to me of why flowers structures are broken up just how we did with our drawings because it’s much easier to point out similarities and differences when there simpler and not so complex. Patterns in a sense make things much easier to understand once there found which in some cases can be very difficult.

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  31. Patterns are such an important part in our human cognition process. I was really intrigued by the section about how even babies perceive patterns before details. Maybe it's because the infant's vision has not been fully developed yet, but I think it's something else. Because to the infant, all the sharp details perceived (for example lines and bright colors of the father's face) flood into his brain at once, making it hard to translate into cognition. So instead, infants learn to systemize what they perceive, and recognize familiar objects or faces by their own systems. I think innately all humans crave to identify patterns that fit with our own systems, either for approval, confidence, or something higher :). Peace.

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  32. Patterns are important to find the similarities between different plants and species. Looking at patterns, one is able to tell major similarities and differences between objects and what makes them stand out and be unique

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  33. Man's ability to recognize patterns is easy to see once you think about it a bit. The thing you mentioned about teaching by connecting all ideas to science and what we are learning was very interesting to me and once i thought about it, i realized how helpful it truly had been so far in Natural Sciences 201

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  34. The patterns I found in the flowers I looked at, not only determined the differences between the two, but also clearly identified the similarities. Doug Lewis

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  35. Patterns are an integral part of life. The power of patterns is that they allow us to predict what will come next and they allow us to solve problems if we can find the pattern within the question. In a sense, patterns are a homologous foundation of life. For instance, if you think about the life cycle of any living thing as a pattern, a pattern of life, then each living organism is homologous in the sense that they each have a life pattern. Patterns are often overlooked and not thought about. However, they help us make connections and predict what will come next. In lab, each flower was homologous in the sense that they shared characteristics - petals, stigmas, styles, filaments, etc. If you take that in terms of a pattern (meaning that the construction of each flower is a pattern) then you can conclude that homology and patterns are synonymous. That is something I will take away from this lab.

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  36. Patterns play such a major role in our life and the universe. Patterns are aesthetically pleasing in many mays, including the petals of a flower or the design of a t shirt. In the lab we noticed a pattern in all the flowers because they all have certain qualities, like petals and ovaries. They don't all look the same, but have similar parts and functions. This is seen throughout all living organisms. Not only that, but how everything works. The season we are in determines a countless number of things for life on earth. We expect the pattern of spring, summer, fall, and winter. From the readings, we learn how there's a sort of pattern of things being buried or hidden, whether with time or for a sort of function.
    Gabrielle Kanellos

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  37. I find it very interesting that babies have the ability to detect patterns before they can detect details. As a scientist I feel like it usually works the opposite way. First we see an object or species and we take it for what it is- but as you study it further and analyze different parts of it you are able to form connections to other objects/species and therefore form the pattern. This was very true with lab today. I chose the Sunflower and the Peruvian Lily- both very different in appearance, but looking closer at it's internal structure, they are more similar than one thinks.

    Camila Machado

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  38. I was very pleased to learn that while children are young, the first thing they are able to identify from the vision is patterns. It is interesting, but it also makes a lot of sense. As humans, we use patterns more then we realize, due to the comfort of understanding this first. As I look back to the picture i chose in the beginning of class, i realize the reason that i chose it was because of the color and the unique shape of the flower. As the lab continued, and I sketched the flowers I dissected, I felt it was necessary to identify the patterns of the flower to be able to allow other viewers to interpret what flower I was drawing. The realization of patterns, has allowed us as humans to analyze the process of homology.

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  39. Patterns show us the a lot more than what the naked eye can see. What I learned today from looking into the different patterns of various flowers, was how two totally different species of flower have somewhat the same reproductive structure that dates back through ages of time. Patterns can show us the what something may have looked like in the past, why it looks the way it does in the present, and what it will look like in the future. Sam Wisenberg

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  40. Evan Sternstein

    I found it really interesting how similar yet at the same time how different the patterns of the sunflower and snapdragon flowers are. There are so many different possible combinations and patterns in the world it's really incredible. I like that you brought up DNA, 99.99% of which humans have in common with each other, yet that other .001% makes such a huge and easily identifiable difference. It's sort of like that with flowers. Flowers are made up of the same parts, just like humans, but vary so much in terms of size, color, smell, etc. In this way you could compare flower patterns to humans.

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  41. As you said, we as humans are naturally look for patterns. Patterns present in nature show the difference between any species of an a living thing, such as flowers. By going through the process of dissecting the two flowers in lab today, I dissected the lily and sunflower. Visually they were both different, and I think after the dissection they contain slight similarities in structure of the stigma for instance. By looking at the patterns in the 2 flowers I was able to see that they were not as drastically different as I initially expected. Lauren Jiron

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  42. It didn't come as a surprise that it is our human cognition to detect patterns first. We are initially attracted to shapes and colors. the first thing i noticed about the different flowers we saw today whether they were on the computer or the ones we dissected were the petal shapes and also colors. The flower petal patterns differed from each other which I thought was pretty neat.

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  43. Most of the time we relate things to each other because of their similar patterns, but we rarely notice them. If we do notice them we hardly ever take the second to realize the importance patterns in our lives. Today in lab I observed and documented the structures of the Peruvian Lily and the Lily. I noticed that their patterns of are similar although they have a difference in size. I believe that patterns are a fundamental aspect in aesthetics. If patterns are present, there is more likely of a chance of it being aesthetically beautiful.

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  44. Patterns are an amazing learning tool in everyday life. It makes sense that patterns aid learning because they are a form of repetition, and the brain learns most consistently through repetition and strategic teaching (aka through patterns). In this lab I learned that while the two flowers I studied looked drastically different on the outside, they were strikingly consistent with one another once I opened them up and explored them. As if that wasn't interesting enough, flowers are more alike to humans than we might initially think, too! Looking back on the beginning of the lab, I can now connect that the picture I first chose, the picture of the flower that appealed to me, was very similar in appearance to the sunflower I chose for my first lab exploration. In the end, all three of the flowers I looked at today are much more similar to each other than I would've ever expected, and are even more similar to me than I would've ever known.

    Katy Cooke

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  45. I think that the point you make about patterns connects very much with our lab today. In lab we dissected two different types of flowers and while they both had some differences their parts were, for the most part, the same. Everyone in my class, including myself, thought that the flowers were beautiful and I think that a big part of that is our brains appreciation for repetition, patterns, and symmetry.

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  47. Sasha Atigehchi

    What I have realized after reading this post is that patterns are ever-present in our every day lives. Patterns are how we perceive the world at first and today, we still follow patterns without realization. This Lab has proven through the dissection of flowers that flowers' similarities are based off patterns throughout time and evolution. Patterns can be obvious or discrete, but nevertheless are existent in every day life.

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  48. This post about patterns is very relatable to our lab today. We dissected to different flowers, and had to see what similarities and differences we found in them. While doing this, it was like we were looking for patterns in the different flowers. Some flowers were more similar to each other, so it looked as if there could be a pattern developing, but other flowers were really different from each other, so it didn't look like there was a pattern at all.

    Michelle Grbic

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  49. Samuel Raheb

    This post makes a lot of sense. Patterns are everywhere in this world and, whether they are hard to detect or not, they help distinguish different things. This point came clear to me today in lab. When I dissected the flowers, I noticed that each of them had their own patterns and characteristics that made them similar. But at the same time, this patterns also had different qualities that made them different from each other. :)

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  50. Patterns are everywhere, even in our lab today, probably why we had to read this post. But the post got me to thinking about patterns in every day life and not just visual ones. Patterns of life, habitual patterns that form in our lives that change the way in which we develop. Kind of like evolution (although we never see the evolution take place in our own lifetime) but still, we may adapt in our own lifetime and it could be seen in patterns.
    [I also wanted to note on the article before this in lab, about the "hands" of evolution and how they mold our lives. I thought that was really interesting and I really enjoyed thinking about evolution within those boundaries.]
    Returning back to the lab today, the sunflower and lily exhibit patterns within their physical bodies (petals, seeds, stems) but also the way in which they all look the same together on the outside. I really like looking at the word in patterns, it helps take a complex outlook and turn it into something simply understood.

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  51. It is true that the world revolves around patterns--from big to small. We create patterns and we live with existing patterns. Practically, humans create patterns or routines to make their everyday lives easier. Physically, as mentioned in the post, there are patterns that help us function as a species! I never would have thought of it that way. DNA, a pattern, really makes us who we are; our bones, joints, and muscles, a pattern among our species, give us all of the abilities that we have. Visually humans, as well as other species, are attracted to patterns (and sometimes lackthereof). We're essentially attached to patterns an cannot get away-not that that's a bad thing.

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  52. Patterns are something that can be found everywhere, but not everyone takes the time to look for them. It's amazing how many different and unique patterns can be found and how they make up the world around us. In today's lab especially, we were introduced to the possibility of patterns and how they can be such a major part of everyday life.

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  53. Patterns is the one word the pops into my mind after drawing my diagram of the comparison between the Peruvian Lily and the Lily. There are certain patterns that define them as lilies, such as their interior structure (filament with a top anther) and their reproductive ovary and ovule system. There is also a certain pattern or concept that we pertain to flowers (as Shakepeare notes) through a wonderful scent and pleasurable sight. Patterns is how we relate things to one another but also how we depict the differences. These differences are just as crucial as the similarities because they teach us more about what we are studying. Take me and my twin for example. We may have similarities, such as our high foreheads and Irish skin, but that does not specifically describe our character. You need to look at our personal characteristics in order to understand who we are as individuals. This may seem like a long stretch from botany, but patterns exist in many facets of life, nature, and culture!

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  54. Patterns are usually symbolic of organization. Patterned rugs are organized to appear symmetrical, therefore aesthetically appealing to the eye. Patterns in flower petals are organized symmetrically to look appealing to pollinators. On the less obvious level, DNA structures, as you mentioned, are also arranged in a pattern. They are highly organized to create the most ideal characteristics. So patterns are linked to organization, symmetry, and aesthetic appeal. But, patterns also help educate. For example, insects recognize the color patterns of flowers, so they can pollinate the flowers. In lab today, patterns were important in educating us about the sexual systems of flowers as well as their aesthetic appeal. We recognized patterns within most of the flowers systems, and similarities that made it easier for us to understand and learn their processes.
    -Abby Danowitz

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  55. Nature is indeed very magnificent. The patterns in nature are just so amazing! How is it that there are so many things in nature that can be measured by perfect mathematical formulas? Fibonacci sequences in flower petals, the Golden Ratio in a snail's shell, using Pi to measure the stars, the list goes on. Call it creationism or natural evolution, the fact that so many things in nature share so many perfect patterns is so mindblowing. It is also a good thing that there are mathematicians, artists, physicists, archaeologists....people who appreciate and try to understand the meanings behind those patterns, and try to harness the patterns to benefit human lives.

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  56. Jacky Zheng

    Patterns are important because they connect us to nature. A lot of patterns comes from our surrounding. Most patterns comes from flowers. Flowers have all kinds of pattern and these patterns tell us what species they are.

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