The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants (The Virtual Laboratory) - Hardcover

"This marvelous book will occupy an important place in the scientific literature." --Prof. Heinz-Otto Peitgen, author of The Beauty of Fractals "...will perform a valuable service by popularizing this enlightening and bewitching form of mathematics." --Steven Levy "...full of delights and an excellent introduction to L-systems" --Alvy Ray Smith, IEEE Graphics and its Applications

Now available in an affordable softcover edition, this classic in Springer's acclaimed Virtual Laboratory series is the first comprehensive account of the computer simulation of plant development. 150 illustrations, one third of them in colour, vividly demonstrate the spectacular results of the algorithms used to model plant shapes and developmental processes. The latest in computer-generated images allow us to look at plants growing, self-replicating, responding to external factors and even mutating, without becoming entangled in the underlying mathematical formulae involved. The authors place particular emphasis on Lindenmayer systems - a notion conceived by one of the authors, Aristid Lindenmayer, and internationally recognised for its exceptional elegance in modelling biological phenomena. Nonetheless, the two authors take great care to present a survey of alternative methods for plant modelling.