author
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
1860–1948
A Scottish biologist, classicist, and mathematician, he became famous for showing how the shapes of living things can be understood through geometry and physical law. His landmark book On Growth and Form helped inspire generations of scientists, architects, and artists.
2 Audiobooks
On Growth and Form
by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 04 (of 10)
by Geoffrey Smith, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Cecil Warburton, Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, Henry Woods
About the author
Born in Edinburgh on May 2, 1860, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson grew up in a household shaped by scholarship; his father was a professor of Greek, and that mix of science and the classics stayed with him throughout his life. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and went on to teach natural history for decades, first at University College, Dundee, and later at St Andrews.
Thompson was unusual in the best way: he moved easily between zoology, mathematics, and classical literature. He also joined scientific expeditions to the Bering Strait, but he is remembered above all for On Growth and Form (1917; greatly expanded in 1942), a book that argued that the forms of plants and animals are shaped not only by evolution, but also by mathematics and the forces of the physical world.
That idea made him a pioneering figure in mathematical and theoretical biology. Even long after his death in St Andrews on June 21, 1948, his work continued to influence biologists, mathematicians, designers, and anyone interested in how nature builds its astonishing variety of forms.