How animals get their stripes and spots

Nature has no shortage of patterns, from spots on leopards to stripes on zebras and hexagons on boxfish. But a full explanation for how these patterns form has remained elusive.

A molecular-based, finite-state machine

A small team of researchers at the University of Manchester has developed a technique for creating a molecular-based, finite-state machine. Their research was published in the journal Nature.

Climate change tipping points may be too simple a concept

We regularly hear warnings that climate change may lead to 'tipping points': irreversible situations where savanna can quickly change into desert, or the warm gulf stream current can simply stop flowing. These cautions often ...

Turing structures in a manmade interface

In 1952, Alan Turing, the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, proposed that certain repetitive natural patterns may be produced by the interaction of two specific substances through the reaction-diffusion ...

Synthetic biology reinvents development

Richard Feynman, one of the most respected physicists of the twentieth century, said "What I cannot create, I do not understand." Not surprisingly, many physicists and mathematicians have observed fundamental biological processes ...

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