Patterns in Nature

If next year I get accepted to the Unievrsity of Edinburgh (or may be I should say "when I get accepted at the University of Edinburgh" because according to The Secret in this way I am saying it is true, I am making a concrete statement to the universe that has no other choice but rearrange itself and make it true (:-D) (call it wishful thinking) I really hope this course will still be available. I will eat rice for a month if I'd have to, but I will enroll for this set of lectures.

Course Name: Patterns in Nature

Course Summary:
Why do trees look like trees and snowflakes like snowflakes? How do termites build elaborate structures without supervision? What can boiling porridge tell us about clouds? This fully illustrated course explains how patterns in nature can form through self-organisation, using examples and methods from a variety of scientific disciplines. Suitable for anyone who's ever wondered about the astonishing complexity of nature, you'll never look at the world in quite the same way again.

Course Details:
Pre-requisites for enrolment
No prior knowledge required.

Content of Course
Introduction: A tour through patterns in nature, outlining and structuring the topic, and brainstorming: which patterns have students observed in nature?

Waves and oscillations: We look at waves in the ocean, the atmosphere (cloud patterns!) etc., and why our heart beats.

Regularity and chaos: Using examples like population cycles or climate fluctuations, we introduce concepts like the logistic equation, bifurcations and attractors.

Animal Cooperation: How fish swarms communicate and how social insects cooperate.

Spatial patterns: Cracks in mud, paint, soil patterns in Arctic soils, and similar topics.

Aggregation and growth processes: Crystals, snowflakes, lichen, and the shells of snails.

Cellular automata: Recap of some of the earlier topics and how they can be modelled/described by simple discrete models.

Fractals: Leaves, trees, river systems and other fractal systems.
Miscellaneous topics: (Human) perception of randomness and patterns.

Concluding Session.
Sourse: https://www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/S/science-and-nature/C1861/patterns-in-nature/