# The importance of being peripheral

- Institution: Gresham College
- Speaker: Professor John D Barrow FRS
- Year: 2008
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Mathematics
- Source: [Gresham College](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/importance-being-peripheral)
- Licence: [Educational use (Gresham College's terms)](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions)
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

The maths of surfaces and boundaries. Queen Dido's problem. The importance of shape. Examples from the natural world where it pays to minimise your surface and others where it pays to maximise it. Animal behaviour: the shapes and huddles of herds. Tactics of Atlantic convoys. Shoals of fish and swarms of midges. Advantages of of sticking together or branching out. Fractals: Nature's answer to the problem of being as superficial as possible.

## Lectures

1. [The importance of being peripheral](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/importance-being-peripheral/f053b08b6ef1) (YouTube)