Alan Turing and morphogenesis

These pages are about the work, on morphogenesis in general and Fibonacci phyllotaxis in particular, which was carried out by Alan Turing in the four or so years before his death, and which remains somewhat obscure.

New! Recent changes to this site, and some vaguely relevant tangents are now recorded in a section of my blog. That's the place to leave comments too.

Introductions

These pages give an introduction to Turing's work, mainly in Fibonacci phyllotaxis. They need to be read in order.

Background: Turing and the lost work
Fibonacci phyllotaxis and parastichy numbers: an introduction to the problem and Turing's interest in it
The published work: morphogenesis and the Turing Instability (plus a more technical discussion in terms of Fourier modes)
The posthumously published work: a new theory of lattices, a geometric approach to phyllotaxis and a Hypothesis of Geometric Phyllotaxis
The unpublished work: dynamic phyllotaxis
and routes to phyllotaxis
and Turing's progress
Modern views of Fibonacci phyllotaxis

Reference

An annotated catalogue of the relevant Turing material. Essentially a handlist I created as I worked through the archive, but also listing the published sources and their relationships to the archive material.
Some themes present in the material
A number of transcriptions from previously unpublished material.
Some references
Recent changes to this site

For a broader account of Turing's life and work, the books and web site maintained by Andrew Hodges are superb.

Alan Turing and morphogenesis

Contents

Introductions

Reference