Turing Patterns and Animal Markings

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Ian Stewart FRS, University of Warwick Mathematics Institute
• Tuesday 19 June 2012, 18:30-19:30
• Babbage Lecture Theater - New Museums Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Bjarki Holm.

A public lecture

In the early 1950s, Alan Turing showed his colleagues a drawing with irregular black-and-white patches, asking them whether they agreed that it looked like a cow. In 1952 he published ‘the chemical basis of morphogenesis’, in which he proposed a mechanism for the creation of animal markings. A chemical called a morphogen was produced by local reactions and diffused across the embryo, laying down a pre-pattern. At a late stage of development, this formed the basis of a pattern of pigments. Although these reaction-diffusion equations do not correspond in detail to many features of the biology, the patterns that they naturally form are remarkably similar to those found on many animals, including irregular and convoluted stripes on fish and some intricate patterns on seashells. The talk will be an informal illustrated discussion of these Turing patterns, from the point of view of modern theories of pattern formation

This talk is part of the Turing Centenary Conference series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Babbage Lecture Theater - New Museums Site
• Turing Centenary Conference

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.