Chia Seeds Reveal Turing's Mathematical Patterns in Nature

Chia seeds grown in trays gave scientists the first experimental verification in living vegetation of Alan Turing's celebrated 1952 theory of how patterns form in nature.

Turing proposed mathematical equations showing how competing factors can generate the spots, stripes, and spatial regularities seen in leopard coats, zebra stripes, and desert vegetation, arrangements now known as Turing patterns.

Brendan D'Aquino, an undergraduate computer science student at Northeastern University working with physicist Flavio Fenton of Georgia Tech, grew chia seeds in even layers and adjusted moisture availability to manipulate the key variables in Turing's equations.

The vegetation patterns that emerged matched both natural environments and computer simulations of the Turing model.

D'Aquino noted that changing the relevant parameters in the model produced the experimental results the team expected.

While Turing patterns had previously appeared in chemistry experiments and artificial systems, earlier studies had only retroactively fit models to observed patterns, so this work actively demonstrated the mechanism at work.

The findings were presented at the American Physical Society meeting in Las Vegas on March 7, 2023.