Dr. Jonathan Wolfe | Fractals - Changing Paradigms in Science and Education | EU2014

Source: thunderbolts.info, fractalfoundation.org



Fractals are the strikingly beautiful images of complex and chaotic systems. While they have existed in nature for billions of years, only in the last few decades has modern mathematics and science started to acknowledge their importance. Indeed, fractals have recently transformed our understanding of a wide range of natural phenomena, and fractal math provides a new language for quantifying the patterns of nature.

Unfortunately, our educational systems and our culture at large have not yet caught up with this conceptual revolution. As a society, we still try to tackle complex problems with inadequate linear solutions, and we still teach our children simple, boring, and largely irrelevant math skills that fail to serve or inspire them. Explore the exciting new realm of fractals in an engaging interdisciplinary presentation that excites and inspires with new possibilities for understanding the complexity of nature.

Covering both the art and science of fractals, we explore the interconnected fractal patterns of nature, seen at scales from the microscopic to the galactic. Dr. Wolfe is the founder and Executive Director of the Fractal Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit that uses the beauty of fractals to inspire interest and participation in science, math and art. An artist as well as a scientist, his studies of the neurophysiology of the visual system were inspired by his love of color, form and motion, and now his knowledge of perceptual neuroscience informs his art.

His love of fractals continues to spiral upward and outward, reaching ever larger audiences, through public art installations, school presentations, corporate trainings, and full-dome planetarium fractal shows. Since 2003, he has taught over 50,000 children and 25,000 adults the important and inspiring lessons of fractals, chaos and complexity.