In most vertebrates, skin appendages such as hair, feathers, or scales originate from placodes—small, specialized skin regions whose spatial organization is controlled by well-conserved genetic ...

A fractal is any geometric pattern that occurs again and again, at different sizes and scales, within the same object. This "self-similarity" can be seen throughout nature, for example in a ...

A bacterium has evolved an enzyme that assembles in a fractal structure, a mathematical pattern that repeats itself at smaller scales. Fractal patterns are found throughout nature on large, ...

Skin color patterns in animals arise from microscopic interactions among colored cells that obey equations, say investigators. Researchers report that a lizard acquires its adult skin color by ...