Can Math Explain How Animals Get Their Patterns?
How Alan Turing's Reaction-Diffusion Model Simulates Patterns in Nature Thanks to http://www.audible.com/minuteearth for sponsoring this video. Asparagus Pee Survey Results: https://goo.gl/8x7abL...
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Nature exhibits a seemingly endless array of patterns – from the cow’s spots to the surgeonfish’s stripes to the cheetah’s spots and stripes – but Alan Turing (the guy who invented computers) thought those patterns might not actually be all that different. To show what he meant, he came up with a simple set of mathematical rules that could give rise to all manner of patterns. The rules go something like this: Inside each theoretical organism, there are two substances called an activator and an inhibitor. The activator stimulates production of both substances, while the inhibitor slows production down. In other words, it’s kind of like a predator-prey relationship: the more activator bunnies there are, the more new bunnies they make, but a ...
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Nature exhibits a seemingly endless array of patterns – from the cow’s spots to the surgeonfish’s stripes to the cheetah’s spots and stripes – but Alan Turing (the guy who invented computers) thought those patterns might not actually be all that different. To show what he meant, he came up with a simple set of mathematical rules that could give rise to all manner of patterns. The rules go something like this: Inside each theoretical organism, there are two substances called an activator and an inhibitor. The activator stimulates production of both substances, while the inhibitor slows production down. In other words, it’s kind of like a predator-prey relationship: the more activator bunnies there are, the more new bunnies they make, but a ...
