Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Turing pattern
open-in-new
<p>The Turing pattern is a concept introduced by English mathematician <a href="/facts/Alan_Turing/klov9b6g">Alan Turing</a> in a 1952 paper titled "<a href="/facts/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphogenesis/GupvxFQu">The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis</a>" which describes how <a href="/facts/Patterns_in_nature/handzeJh">patterns in nature</a>, such as stripes and spots, can arise naturally and autonomously from a homogeneous, uniform state. The pattern arises due to <a href="/facts/Turing_instability/deqI4VAP">Turing instability</a> which in turn arises due to the interplay between differential <a href="/facts/Diffusion/KbAxroBa">diffusion</a> of chemical species and chemical reaction. The instability mechanism is surprising because a pure diffusion, such as <a href="/facts/Molecular_diffusion/lcIz28qY">molecular diffusion</a>, would be expected to have a stabilizing influence on the system (i.e., complete mixing). </p>