Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so. Piet Mondrian was an early 20th-century ...

Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of a tree illustrates the principle that combined thickness is preserved at different stages of ramification. The math that describes the branching pattern of trees in ...

What makes a tree a tree? Or rather, why can we recognize trees in even quite abstract depictions when they are so varied in nature? Researchers have found a clue in the branches, and used math to ...

Piet Mondrian painted the same tree in "The gray tree" (left) and "Blooming apple tree" (right). Viewers can readily discern the tree in "The gray tree" with a branch diameter scaling exponent of 2.8.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Tree branches in art throughout history follow geometric rules related to fractal geometry. 'Almond blossom' by Vincent van Gogh.

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Mitchell Newberry, University of New Mexico (THE CONVERSATION) Do artists and ...