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 ...

The math that describes the branching pattern of trees in nature also holds for trees depicted in art—and may even underlie our ability to recognize artworks as depictions of trees. Trees are loosely ...

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 ...