Articles on Patterns in nature

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Color patterns seen in fish and other animals evolved to serve various purposes. Lagunatic Photo/iStock via Getty Images Plus

November 8, 2023

How animals get their skin patterns is a matter of physics – new research clarifying how could improve medical diagnostics and synthetic materials

Ankur Gupta, University of Colorado Boulder

Understanding how the intricate spots and stripes, or Turing patterns, of many animals form can help scientists mimic those processes in the lab.

Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland features around 40,000 exposed polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections. Chris Hill/Photodisc via Getty Images

September 19, 2022

Why does nature create patterns? A physicist explains the molecular-level processes behind crystals, stripes and basalt columns

Maxim Lavrentovich, University of Tennessee

Nature begins forming patterns at the molecular level – and sometimes they grow to enormous sizes.

An mbu pufferfish wearing a particularly mesmerising Turing pattern. Dennis Jacobsen/Shutterstock

June 28, 2019

Alan Turing: how the world’s most famous codebreaker unlocked the secrets of nature’s beauty

Natasha Ellison, University of Sheffield

Alan Turing’s last published paper revealed the mathematics behind the beautiful patterns that adorn the natural world.

Top contributors

Natasha Ellison
PhD Researcher, University of Sheffield
Maxim Lavrentovich
Assistant Professor of Theoretical Biophysics, University of Tennessee
Ankur Gupta
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder