Some patterns arise simply or randomly, but others develop via complex, precise interactions of pattern-generating systems. Their beauty aside, the intricacies of these systems are inspiring the ...

There’s a reason fashion designers look to animal prints for inspiration. Creatures have evolved a dizzying array of patterns: stripes, spots, diamonds, chevrons, hexagons and even mazelike designs.

There are many purposes that spots and stripes serve in nature, but how they form has been more of a mystery to scientists. Now, researchers have advanced their breakthrough theory – and it could help ...

Animal stripes and spots might look decorative, but they’re the result of deeply complex biological processes that begin long ...

Many animals have stripes or patterns for the purposes of camouflage. But why the particular designs? Harvard researchers believe they know how a certain direction occurs and they have come up with a ...

The zebrafish, a small fresh water fish, owes its name to a striking pattern of blue stripes alternating with golden stripes. Three major pigment cell types, black cells, reflective silvery cells, and ...

The same physical process that helps to remove dirt from laundry could explain how tropical fish and other patterned animals get their spots, according to new research. Published in Science Advances, ...

Patterns abound in nature, from zebra stripes and leopard spots to honeycombs and bands of clouds. Somehow, these patterns form and organize all by themselves. To better understand how, researchers ...

For Rudyard Kipling, the answer of how zebras got their stripes was simple: to hide from predators in the dark and dappled forest of the High Veldt in Africa. But now there's a more scientific ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Sara Tabin is a science contributor writing about animals. Scientists aren’t sure, but one theory, dubbed the “motion dazzle ...

More than 70 years ago, mathematician Alan Turing proposed a mechanism that explained how patterns could emerge from bland uniformity. Scientists are still using his model—and adding new twists—to ...