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Nature 421, 124-125 (9 January 2003) | doi:10.1038/421124a
Materials science: Bursting apart
Leo P. Kadanoff
Abstract
When a low-viscosity fluid is injected into an elastic material, it forces its way through by making slender cracks, in a random, fractal pattern. The spreading of the cracks can be modelled through a series of 'bursts'.
Nature abounds in branched objects possessing random, fractal structures: the pattern of air vessels in our lungs, or the branched structure of a river and of the streams and rivulets that feed it. Such patterns arise when the branching process occurs easily and is sensitive to small, random features in the environment.
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