The Mathematics of Morphogenesis

I found these intriguing drawings by Alan Turing in the Turing Digital Archives. It seems that in addition to being a visionary computer scientist and brilliant cryptologist, Turing also made significant contributions to mathematical biology - in particular the mathematics of morphogenesis.

Although the only paper he published on the subject ("The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis",1952) isn't available online, there's a summary of Turing's work on the development of form by Jonathon Swinton. Turing's ideas on the chemical reaction-diffusion process as the basis for the development of patterns in nature (such as the spots on giraffes and jaguars) inspired reaction-diffusion texture-generation in computer graphics.

Another of Turing's interests was spiral phyllotaxis (in particular, the development of the daisy), which influenced the physically-based modelling of plants and flowers by Dr. P. Prusinkiewicz and others (there are some amazing images in this paper). Also, "Visual Models of Morphogenesis" hosts a nice collection of images and animations related to these topics, complete with explanations and references. It's a graphical feast for artists and geeks alike.