Color patterns seen in fish and other animals evolved to serve various purposes. Lagunatic Photo/iStock via Getty Images Plus A thought experiment can help visualize the challenge of achieving ...

Turing’s ideas explain how some animal patterns arise. A spot-maker is the most basic version of Turing patterning. It involves two key substances, or morphogens, as Turing called them, that can move ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The strikingly ...

Using a new computer model, scientists simulated the stripes, spots and hexagons on a species of boxfish, imperfections and all. A male ornate boxfish with distinctive, complex patterns of stripes and ...

Learn how different animals get their stripes. Would you believe the answer is… math? This is the story of a WWII wartime codebreaker and his quest to decode nature’s most beautiful patterns. Alan ...

Chris Konow researches the impact of growth on Turing patterns in the Epstein Lab. Turing patterns are named after the British mathematician Alan Turing, who proposed a mechanism for how ...

Ankur Gupta receives funding from NSF (CBET - 2238412) and ACS Petroleum Research Fund (65836 - DNI9). A thought experiment can help visualize the challenge of achieving distinctive color patterns.

More than 70 years ago, mathematician Alan Turing proposed a mechanism that explained how patterns could emerge from bland uniformity. Scientists are still using his model—and adding new twists—to ...

(CNN) — 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 ...

A thought experiment can help visualize the challenge of achieving distinctive color patterns. Imagine gently adding a drop of blue and red dye to a cup of water. The drops will slowly disperse ...