Jungle cats have true spots only when they are kittens. As they grow, the spots become rosettes — broken rings in leopards (pictured) and polygons in jaguars. This changing pattern is the latest to be successfully described using Turing models.
Alan Turing suggested in 1952 that biological patterns could be generated by two chemicals diffusing between cells and interacting under the animal's coat. Sy-Sang Liaw of National Chung-Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan, and his team adjusted parameters in Turing's reaction-diffusion equations to create spots. They then tweaked the parameters so that the patterns resembled the coats of middle-aged big cats. However, no one has found the chemicals, which Turing called morphogens, that might make this model work in mammals.
九章數學出版社、九章數學基金會版權所有 本網頁各鍊結標題及鍊結內容歸原權利人所有 Copyright 2000 ~2004九章數學出版社、九章數學基金會 本網站內所有文字及資料版權均屬九章所有，未經書面同意之商業用途必究 This web site was made with XOOPS, a web portal system written in PHP. XOOPS is a free software released under the GNU/GPL license.
