Navigation problems divide into two parts, and confusing them is the reason this subject seems simpler than it is.
The first is knowing which way you are facing. A compass…
The interesting thing about an egg is how many contradictory requirements it satisfies simultaneously. Strong and breakable, sealed and breathing, hidden and identifiable. Here are sixteen.
1. It Has to…
The governing constraint is that heat is gained by volume and lost through surface, so the ratio between the two determines the entire problem. Almost everything below follows from that.…
Almost nothing in the animal world does what this does.
A great many animals signal. They warn, threaten, court and call, and the signal refers to the here and now…
The test is simple: pigment colour looks the same from every angle, and structural colour changes as you move. Once you know that, a great deal of the natural world…
The useful way to read these is as solutions rather than as homes. Each one is addressing a specific physical problem, and the structure follows from the problem rather than…