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That’s Amazing. Is that real or a photoshop trick?

More Romanesco Broccoli on Flickr.

Amazing both ways: If its CGI , it’s stunning. If it’s natural, it’s…

I always beleived Math was the language of nature. This if proof for me.

Gorgeous. Reminds me of a book I used to have “The Power of Limits” by Gyorgy Doczi.

I agree with Raphael, although I’d say that math is to the language of nature as rōmaji is to Japanese. It’s a convenient step for us to be able to begin to understand that which is beyond our grasp.

Ah, the loveliness of a vegetable. If you’re ever in San Francisco SPQR makes a great pasta with this – “Trombette with long cooked broccoli romanesco and ricotta salata” – even though by the time the broccoli gets in front of your plate it is no longer recognizable as the broccoli. Quite tasty indeed.

Sorry to spoil it, but I don’t think this is 100% made by nature – it’s a hybrid vegetable. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, as I’d like to believe that this occurs naturally in the ‘wild’.

Adam: What is 100% nature? What is nature? Are we not part of nature? We’re animals, aren’t we? If a bird drops a seed 1000 miles away from where it should have been blown by the wind is that not nature? If we understand nature enough to hybridize it, isn’t that nature? We’re using nature’s tools. That’s nature, isn’t it?

Each of those small spirals follow fibonacci’s sequence, and the larger spiral is also a fibonacci sequence made of the smaller ones. Making the first two or three iterations of a Koch’s snowflake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_snowflake

Pretty sweet stuff.

hardly. many of nature’s designs are flawed or deprecated. The appendix. Tonsils. The human spine, etc…

we can do better.

“many of nature’s designs are flawed or deprecated.”

In what context; from what perspective? Flaws are subjective and relative. Your flaw is my perfection.

Very cool – looks like coral. I love the color.

hardly. many of nature’s designs are flawed or deprecated. The appendix. Tonsils. The human spine, etc…

we can do better.

Ha! I would love to see you try to make (with your own hands) anything that is even remotely as amazing as even a single cell. Nature does indeed win every design contest. Every cell in my body contains a complete blueprint of how to make me and no information storage system holds a flame to DNA code (not even S3, sorry amazon)

And all this by accident? I think not. (sorry for the ensuing flame war)

by the logic above, nothing produced by nature can be optimized further or even rethought. That just doesn’t make sense.

Not trying to dismiss the awesome scope of the natural world, just pointing out that our designs for sn airplane don’t use flapping wings. We were able to choose and exploit certain features while disposing of others.

are we really going to do this now?........

And all this by accident? I think not. (sorry for the ensuing flame war)

Strawman.. Who said it was accidental? Don’t we all agree a complex system is at work here? Can’t we agree to disagree about the origin of that system? Or just not enter into a debate about it in blog comments? p.s. God is a superstition.

Famous turn of the century Spanish Architect, Antoni Gaudi once said,”The tree outside my studio is my master”. This is a great illustration of what he meant.

His buildings were and are a true testament of organic design and mathematics.

This is absolutely real. I am amazed about these every time I see them at the local supermarket. They aren’t even expensive or considered “special”. Still they are just wow!

Strawman.. Who said it was accidental? Don’t we all agree a complex system is at work here? Can’t we agree to disagree about the origin of that system? Or just not enter into a debate about it in blog comments? p.s. God is a superstition.

At this point, I implore you all to pick up a copy of “I Am A Strange Loop”, by Douglas Hofstadter. Wonderful, readable. He never disappoints.

Really, that book is more about consciousness than this… um, particular debate, which I won’t name because I don’t want to fan any flames. But it’s very relevant.

that’s really a fantastic post ! ! added to my favourite blogs list..

P.S. John is a superstition.

dfgs

“Every cell in my body contains a complete blueprint of how to make me and no information storage system holds a flame to DNA code (not even S3, sorry amazon)”

Sorry, but not every cell in your body contains all of your genetic make-up.

Its called a romanesque, member of the cauliflower family. Hardly any of our veg is in it’s ‘wild’ state and I first had one ten years ago so it’s been around a while.

Taste is delicate, cook very lightly.

Oh I eat those before . Nothing special. but the spiral is beautiful.

Monsanto….. of course no veg is in its wild state, except when we find the brilliant few who work with heirlooms to persist the real existence of life

Sorry, but all of you who wish to argue for/against creationism are fools. This conversation was supposed to be about cool-looking broccoli.

It’s not a genetically engineered rarity, as far as I know, like glow-in-the-dark bunnies or anything of that nature. The first time I saw it was in my father-in-law’s garden seed catalog, along with all your other garden-variety veggies (pardon the pun).

Besides, if we can get all in-depth about the golden ratio in nature, why can’t this be naturally made too?

Eh, I guess it’s alright.

If you’re in the UK Waitrose sell these is most of their Supermarkets

Great symmetry and energy. Does anyone know the scale? Millimeters or microns?

Yum. Every spring there is a vendor at Detroit’s Eastern Market that sells these. I was amazed when I saw it for the first time. tastes just like broccoli just a crunchier texture.

This one is all natural. It is very common in Western Europe, and especially in Italy. It is called Romanesco Broccoli, and has been around for hundreds of years. Wikipedia says it was first documented in the sixteenth century.

Math is indeed the language of the universe. Not just spiral concepts (ala Fibonacci sequence) but all numbers.

Anyways, this is similar to sea shells (the ones with which you can supposedly hear the sea). They are also shaped like spirals. The same with many galaxies, including our own. These things don’t just form out coincidence, it is proof that the laws governing the universe is about numbers.

A more brilliant example of how the universe is related to numbers, in my opinion, on the atomic scale.

Sorry, but all of you who wish to argue for/against creationism are fools. This conversation was supposed to be about cool-looking broccoli.

Uh, actually it was supposed to be about “nature” and “design”, surely? And selection is certainly a key component here, as with almost everything we eat? It doesn’t have to be genetically engineered in a laboratory to be genetically modified.

Besides, equating people who argue against creationism with those who argue for it (or standing by and letting your future elected officials misunderstand that such views have merit) so you can talk about broccoli is like talking about the paint color on the Titanic.

At Dystisis: I like it.

Maybe, God is Gravity. Or, Gravity is God.

Whatever it is; it is so much more elegant (and powerful and fluid and…) than us.

Like a little fleck, I just sit here. Astonished.

Broccoli on Acid

GeelWonder: all is said. Well done.

I wonder if it tastes good…

It’s good to see someone else calling it fractal… I’ve been working at a company in Germany for the last year or so and they serve this beautiful vegetable for lunch in the cafeteria at least once or twice a month.

Each of those little buds reminds me of the Chicago Spire building being built: http://www.thechicagospire.com/

In Croatia, it is called “shannon”, no idea why. And it looks exactly like in the photo. I’ve always referred to it as the “fractal cauliflower”, but nobody understood me.

oddly enough, I’d bet the genetic encoding to produce the fractal buds on this beauty is simpler than a typical broccoli or cauliflower.

wish mine came out this nice, of course I didn’t use any pesticides either: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glloyd/2386547476/

what about radiation in spinning

I’ve smoked better, this is cheap D street

So then what do we say about purple cauliflower? Or purple bell peppers? Besides the fact that they are a different color which makes it intriguing.. they just are like the brocclliflower veggies, grown from the soil. How they got there in there revised form is no different from different ancestral heritages mixing in marriage. Not “pure” in the sense of blood line, but no less significant or part of the human race, only interchanged with an other. They are still part of the human race, just not one of pure heritage blood line of one race. Cauliflower and Broccoli 2 different races of vegetables. So, lets get over it… it is nifty looking no matter how it got here. Some of us really need to get more excitement in our lives when this is the topic of debate.. and i can even believe I am responding.. been a slow week i guess.

Nature? For a relatively difficult to define or pinpoint entity, nature gets a lot of credit for something ‘it’ probably had very little to do with. But, then again, for some people, nature is their God.

@mimzy: I am fine with humanity homogenizing. Sad that we lose diversity, but good that no one would care about the color of your skin. On the other hand I would sure miss there being a difference between peas and carrots.

Some of us really need to get more excitement in our lives when this is the topic of debate..

Hey, it’s human nature … something that joins us all no matter our race, religion or gender … that ANYTHING can be a topic of debate :-)

Indi.. You are correct about human nature and debate.. I actually enjoy this sort of thing.. I was more referring to the issue of some people losing sight of what is really being talked about.. sometimes needing a bit more of an outlet.

But.. to your missing peas and carrots.. no one has removed them from the market. It would be more likely the hybrid creations/or evolutions, would go pass away/extinct, rather than the long standing “originals” Look at Eggplant.. it has stood it’s ground however, not the most widely popular food..but people still grow or buy and cook with it… Who knew? .

a

Hello,

Great you blogged this picture :-))

I once walked with a programmer’s friend through a small luxus supermarket and we discussed the prize for salats in Luxembourg-City and he said, quite like in Zurich.

And suddenly I saw a broccoli like the one in the photo and I was all excited and said: Oh my gosh, Martin, look… It’s a fractal broccoli… I was very excited and shouted.

My pragmatic friend took out the camera and filmed it. The supermarket people looked at us as if we lost our minds..-

Best wishes, Robi

I’m kind of weirded out by this thing. My intellect processes the information on this page and says “this is food” but on a visceral level I get “augh, kill it!”

Great symmetry and energy. Does anyone know the scale? Millimeters or microns?

Steve- That’s a full size cauliflower. They tend to be slightly smaller than the white cauliflower, but not too much smaller.

At the Farmer’s market in Santa Monica, I like to get a variety of these along with purple and orange cauliflower. Side by side, you can taste the subtle differences. One is slightly sweeter, one a bit more bitter and the other a bit more earthy.

This plant must be very good at math. I like this fractal shapes. They appear to be like the natural art made by plants.

I can only hope to create art of similar beauty.

@mimzy: I agree, I’m sure peas and carrots are here for the long haul. I’ve never seen one of the subject fractal beauties. Maybe I should get out more :-)

Romanesco is tastier than any ordinary cauliflower or brocoli. And your kids will eat it because it looks so cool!! Break into florets, blanch in heavily salted boiling water for 3-5 mins, allow to cool on a dishtowel. Toss with pasta, top-notch olive oil, and very good grated cheese. You will be a fan of this veggie for life.

Mmmmm … mashed cauliflower and garlic … mmmmm …