Li

A link in del.icio.us to Prime numbers, the zeta function and li piqued my curiousity. It turned out to be an interesting page by British mathematician Matthew Watkins devoted to the subjects listed in the title. It's the first time I've stumbled onto a discussion of Li on the Net, and I wouldn't have known anything about Li had I not first stumbled onto architect David Wade's Li: Dynamic Form in Nature shortly after its publication.

Wade's book is compendium of dynamic forms in nature. According to Wade, natural forms have long been studied in Chinese culture, and this study (perhaps I should say 'perspective') is referred to as "Li."

"Li reflect the order and pattern in Nature... but it is not pattern thought of as something dead, like a mosaic: it is dynamic pattern as embodied in all things living, and in human relationships, and in the highest human
values" -- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China.

The book initially interested me because it seemed like a perfect little reference for pattern generation and texture synthesis, but it interests me perhaps even more on a philosophical level as it fits in with interests in questions mathematical reality and relationships between ideas and existence, abstractions and concretes, mathematics and nature, etc.

It's a great little book, well worth $10. It's part of the Wooden Books, and I noticed from Watkins' page that he too has published a little book in the series I think I'm going to have to get: Useful Mathematical and Physical Formulae.