News Math

Chia seedlings verify Alan Turing’s ideas about patterns in nature

An overhead photo of blotchy vegetation taking up the entire frame.

This blotchy vegetation in a gapped bush plateau in Niger is an example of what’s called a Turing pattern.

Nicolas Barbier/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

By James R. Riordon

- More than 2 years ago

LAS VEGAS – Chia seeds sprouted in trays have experimentally confirmed a mathematical model proposed by computer scientist and polymath Alan Turing decades ago. The model describes how patterns might emerge in desert vegetation, leopard spots and zebra stripes.