On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:00:53 EDT, "clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

>stbenge <^@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> I sometimes wonder how certain shells have come to have such patterns on
>> them. There is one CA sim based on Pascal's triangle which produces
>> Sierpinki-esqu patterns, and I have seen something strikingly similar on
>> a real shell. How does it happen?
>
>Well, is it any surprise that organisms comprised of cells exhibit some
>"cellular automaton" behavior? ;)
>
>

To quote from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061126121128.htm

Biology reveals that the shape and colour patterns on the shell of the
mollusc mirror the localised expression of specific genes in the
mantle, a layer of skin situated just below the shell.

For rendering shells in POV you could look at   http://www.shelly.de/
I have not tried this program though.

The isosurface tutorial has some renderings 
http://www.econym.demon.co.uk/isotut/shells.htm

I am sure i saw an article some time ago that gave equations enabled
you to draw the patterns of actual shell colourings but cannot
remember where that was.

John

Post a reply to this message