If you peer down at the plaza between UC Irvine's biological sciences buildings, you'll see your science homework coming to life before your eyes.
Coming out of the concrete, it's the magic of mitosis – the process by which a cell splits into two identical cells.
Seen from right to left, the planters in the biological sciences plaza at UC Irvine make up the stages of mitosis.
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The design starts with one circle on the floor, then evolves into two circles pulling themselves apart, then two planter boxes and finally two separate, fully grown trees.
"It's supposed to be the start of the actual creation of life," said Gerald Ohta, the project landscape architect at Lynn Capouya, Inc. who came up with the design.
The journey doesn't end in the plaza, though – the design also starts a pedestrian ring mall that sends droves of young scholars on their merry way throughout campus.
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