Fractals are a paradox. Amazingly simple, yet infinitely complex. New, but older than dirt. What are fractals? Where did they come from? Why should I care? Unconventional 20th-century mathematician ...

Fifty years ago, “fractal” was born. In a 1975 book, the Polish-French-American mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot coined the term to describe a family of rough, fragmented shapes that fall outside ...

In 1975, a new word came into use, when a maverick mathematician made an important discovery. So what are fractals? And why are they important? During the 1980s, people became familiar with fractals ...

You have almost certainly seen computer-generated fractals – beautiful, trippy images in which colourful, intricate structures repeat ad infinitum as you fall ever further down the rabbit hole.

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.