Crocheting a Coral Reef
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I had no idea that crochet was best way to model hyperbolic geometry. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard about hyperbolic geometry until I watched the video below, a TEDtalk given this past February by science writer Margaret Wertheim. Her project—crocheting a coral reef—began in 2005 and was inspired by the effects of climate change. Part art, part math, part biology, there are now thousands of these models, 99% created by women. (I was disappointed to learn that Wertheim visited the Smithsonian last December and I missed it. Darn.)
(Hat tip: GrrlScientist)
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