A mixture of two types of pigment-producing cells undergoes diffusiophoretic transport to self-assemble into a hexagonal pattern. Credit: Siamak Mirfendereski and Ankur Gupta/CU Boulder A zebra’s ...

A primordial developmental toolkit shared by all vertebrates, and described by a theory of the mathematician Alan Turing, sets the growth pattern for all types of skin structures. In 1952, well before ...

Patterns that guide the development of feathers and other features can be set by mechanical forces in the embryo, not just by gradients of chemicals. Turing Patterns Turn Up in a Tiny Crystal The ...

Turing also turned his math skills to understanding how regular features could emerge on the developing embryo. Scientists since then have applied his equations to the development of such patterns as ...

In his only paper on biology Alan Turing the computing science pioneer and renowned mathematician, proposed a theory of morphogenesis, in which he hypothesized how chemical reactions might produce ...