A Swiss botanist recently conducted an intensive study of why so many plants sport flowers or leaves with beautiful spiral patterns that conform to the golden ratio, also known as the divine ratio.
The golden ratio, approximately 1.618, has fascinated scientists, mathematicians, architectural designers, and artists for centuries because it appears abundantly in nature. The ratio occurs when the sum of two numbers divided by the larger number produces the same answer as the larger number divided by the smaller number.
A multitude of psychological studies show people seem pre-programmed to find the ratio aesthetically appealing. It appears throughout creation in things such as plants, seashells, spiral galaxies, hurricanes, human faces, fingerprints, animal bodies, bird flight patterns, and DNA molecules. But science cannot explain its purpose or allure.
Botanist Cris Kuhlemeier investigated tissue mechanics, the roles of plant hormones and proteins, cellular communication, and adaptive functioning in attempt to understand what generates the spiral patterns that align precisely in the golden ratio. He concluded that the mysterious spiral patterns must relate to “reproductive strategies.” But Discovery Institute experts point out, “Flowers don’t have ‘reproductive strategies,’ because they have no brains.”
At the end of the analysis, Kuhlemeier said his investigation suggested that spiral patterning works through a positive feedback loop between auxin, a plant hormone, and the mechanism that transports it from cell to cell. But “none of that explains the origin of the feedback loops, the origin of auxin, the origin of the transporter, the origin of the genes that build these machines, or why any of those factors should follow the golden ratio,” according to the Discovery Institute’s blog, Evolution News & Science Today.
Perhaps a better starting point for understanding the purpose of the divine ratio is to acknowledge the divine God who designed it.
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Publication date: October 9, 2017