The word "fractal" was coined less than twenty years ago by one of history's most creative mathematicians, Benoit Mandelbrot.  He derived the term "fractal" from the Latin verb frangere, meaning to break or >> MORE

Huge clouds of hydrogen and helium gas hover in outer space; these are the birthplaces of stars.  Under gravity the clouds contract, heat up and eventually collapse.  Once temperatures reach several thousand degrees, the hydrogen molecules ionize (lose electrons) becoming protons.  The gas >> MORE