When it’s time for an e. coli bacterium to divide, proteins inside the single-celled organism start to chase each other around. “There are two types of proteins doing this, collectively,” said ...

New research helps explain how sharp patterns form on zebras, leopards, tropical fish and other creatures. Their findings could inform the development of new high-tech materials and drugs. Nature has ...

The honeycomb patterns which are often found in salt deserts in Death Valley, US, and Bolivia, among other places, look like something from another world. Researchers can now explain the origin of the ...

Cell–cell adhesion-induced patterning in keratinocytes can be explained by just starvation and strong adhesion, Hokkaido University researchers find. Fingerprints are one of the best-recognised ...

Perfect circles of stones cover the ground in parts of Alaska and the Norwegian islands of Spitsbergen. Elsewhere in the far north, stones form other striking patterns on the ground: polygons, stripes ...

Nature has no shortage of patterns, from spots on leopards to stripes on zebras and hexagons on boxfish. But a full explanation for how these patterns form has remained elusive. Now engineers at the ...