Turing’s ideas have staying power, even decades after he proposed them. But he didn’t have all the information, and evolution layered complexity over his simple activators and inhibitors. “The Turing ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. In nature, patterns of chemical interactions between two different ...

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 ...

The strikingly patterned ornate boxfish has no lack of detail when it comes to its hexagonal spots and keen stripes — the intricate markings are so sharp-edged in the species that it had engineers at ...

Patterns of chemical interactions are thought to create patterns in nature such as stripes and spots. This new study shows that the mathematical basis of these patterns also governs how sperm tail ...

Himba bushmen in the Namibian grasslands have long passed down legends about the region’s mysterious fairy circles: bare, reddish-hued circular patches that are also found in northwestern Australia.