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Wednesday, August 11, 2021

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Nanometre-Scale Turing Patterns in Bismuth Crystals

Alan Turing's work on morphogenesis, culminating in his 1952 paper, “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis”, is less known than his contributions to computing and cryptography, but remains the foundation for understanding the spontaneous formation of patterns in nature. Here is an apparent example of emergence of Turing patterns in an inorganic system without explicit activators, inhibitors, or diffusion.

Turing's investigation of morphogenesis is the jumping off point for Rudy Rucker's zany 2019 on-the-road novel, Turing and Burroughs.

Posted at August 11, 2021 11:17