Universal Pattern

Beach Sand Pattern Abstract, Kiawah Island, SC  © Doug Hickok


A close-up of dendritic patterns on a sandy beach left by the ebb and flow of tides mirrors other patterns found in nature, perhaps like those of jelly fish tentacles, or the network of veins in an eye ball, or the roots and branches of a weeping willow, or a network of dry river beds on a desert plain, or a summer electrical storm, or the topographical map of a mountain range, or foul flames from the River Styx, or...