Interesting patterns emerge where order and randomness meet. On this beach, wave action has sorted the stones, removing everything smaller than the ones we see. Stones that are small enough to move but too big to be washed away tend to align so they screen each other from the waves, forming patterns much larger than any individual stone. It reminds me of how molecules align in a liquid crystal — the topic of ongoing mathematical research! As a mathematical modeller it also reminds me of how a mathematical theory acts on the messy raw material of the natural worl
