The Hyperbolic Crocheted Reef Project: Art/Math/Ecology

Science writer Margaret Wertheim’s Hyperbolic Crocheted Reef Project demonstrates a happy congruence between the mathematical phenomena modeled perfectly by the creatures of the reef and the traditionally feminine craft of crocheting, which is uniquely suited to modeling hyperbolic space. It draws attention to the plight of environmentally distressed coral reefs through a tactile, Technicolor display of a kind of higher mathematics that was previously almost impossible to picture.