WE ARE ALL DESIGNIST NOW:

Violins are kind of like leaves. They've changed over time, driven in part by their designers' tastes. Violins fall into distinct lineages, recognizable by their shapes, just as leaves from one or another plant would be. And they show signs of a sort of natural selection: Violins look more and more like the ones first created by Antonio Stradivari.

This is according to Dan Chitwood, a biologist who normally studies leaves. Specifically, he studies how leaf shapes have evolved over time and the genetic basis of that evolution. Doing that research means quantifying and tracking shape changes over time, something just as easily applied to Chitwood's other avocation, the viola.

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