FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for this and next weekend deals with cone shell patterning. For me, it is a testament to human curiosity that adults can spend lifetimes studying peacock feathers, beetle casings, the patterning of shells, or equally seemingly unimportant things; the reality is that these offer wonderful insights into things like photonic crystals, and the mathematics of chaos, and so much more. Thank you D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson.