Ideas worth spreading

The beautiful math of coral

1,588,292 views |

Margaret Wertheim |

TED2009

• February 2009

Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician -- celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying coral creation.

Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician -- celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying coral creation.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Margaret Wertheim

Margaret Wertheim

See speaker profile

By masterminding a project to model a coral reef armed only with crochet hooks, Margaret Wertheim hopes to bring some of the most complicated mathematical models embodied in our universe into the minds (and hands) of the masses.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.