Piet Mondrian painted the same tree in "The gray tree" (left) and "Blooming apple tree" (right). Viewers can readily discern the tree in "The gray tree" with a branch diameter scaling exponent of 2.8.
Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so. Piet Mondrian was an early 20th-century ...