So I am taking this opportunity to re-post a recent reference to Alan Turing’s work on Morphogenesis:
Alan Turing [yes, the genius code-breaker] did some work in the early 1950s :
Ref. 'The chemical basis of morphogenesis' [. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 237, 37-72 (1952)]
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/h ... oupland-1/
The mathematical content is near-incomprehensible to this mere mortal … but the underlying concepts are interesting and significant.
https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/pu ... on-the-matTuring also worked on a computer model of a chemical reaction-diffusion process which might explain the emergence of patterns in biological organisms. His research student Bernard Richards applied reaction-diffusion equations to spherical forms. As Turing expected, they produced the symmetrical 'spines' seen in microscopic sea animals called radiolaria.
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MichaelG.
PostScript: As the Earth’s climate continues to change, I suspect we [or our descendants] will see morphological changes occurring, in accordance with Turing’s explanation of the process.