Nature · Study 029
Turing's Leopard
A Gray-Scott reaction-diffusion system grows spots, stripes and mazes from scattered seeds. Paint with your pointer to start new colonies.
What you're looking at
Two imaginary chemicals spread across a grid at different speeds. One feeds the other, and the second converts the first into more of itself before decaying. The feed rate rises from the top of the canvas to the bottom, so dividing spots dominate one region and winding stripes another.
The idea behind it
Alan Turing proposed in 1952 that patterns like these could explain how a uniform embryo develops spots and stripes. He had no computer capable of showing it properly. Later experiments found real chemical and biological systems that behave the way his equations predicted.
Try this
Drag across the canvas to seed fresh chemical and watch new patterns grow outward from your stroke.
