Researchers have proposed an explanation for how the patterns form based on the "Turing patterns." A question naturally arises: How can distinct color patterns form in the presence of diffusion? Our work suggests that combining the conditions that form Turing patterns with diffusiophoresis could also form the basis of artificial skin patches. Just like adaptive skin patterns in animals, when Turing patterns change — say from hexagons to stripes — this indicates underlying differences in chemical concentrations inside or outside the body. Besides animal skin patterns, Turing patterns are also crucial to other processes such as embryonic development and tumor formation.

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Persons: —, Ben Alessio, Alan Turing, Turing, diffusiophoresis, Keld, Ankur Gupta Organizations: Service, Getty Images, micron, University of Colorado Locations: Denmark, University of Colorado Boulder