Equations for the evolution of the skin
2006/08/07 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa
The skins of several animals are spectacular and attractive. Some are striped, such as zebra, other dotted, such as leopard. And each one has a special drawing. In addition, it seems that this drawing changes as the animal advances the age, it becomes more complex. There are some mathematicians who have discovered how to use mathematical models to explain this evolution of drawing.
The animal leather drawings have been researched for a long time. In 1952 Alan Turing published the basic equation, the model that follows the leather drawing. Turing explained in the embryonic era how the drawings of the skin are produced through reaction and diffusion equations. These equations have allowed to reproduce skins drawings of different animals.
But the leather of an animal is changing with age and the drawings become complex. Well, to reproduce the drawings of adults, the equations of Turing must be used twice: the first time you have to look for the model of the animal's childhood and change the parameters and in the second come to the drawing of the adult age.
