Fractals exist everywhere in nature, creating infinite, mind-bending patterns that are even stranger than a casual glance may show. Indeed, even their definition causes disagreements between scientists and researchers.

A fractal is a subset of a Euclidean space for which the Hausdorff dimension strictly exceeds the topological dimension.

Mandelbrot described a fractal as:

“a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole”

We love that these complex shapes can be found in nature, foods (romanesco, anyone?) and also deep within the brain, when on a psychedelic experience.

Regardless of how you define it, the scientific and visual nature of fractals make them fascinating to explore. And isn’t expanding the mind a good thing?

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