Stable system + Stabilizing effect = Instability. WTF?
" The chemical basis for Morphogenesis " is one of the lesser known contributions of Turing but still a seminal paper in the field of mathematical biology. He tried to explain pattern formation in Morphogenesis( The process by which an organism in earlier stage of life generates shapes) using a simple model of a reaction-diffusion equation. He used this formalism to explain stripes on a tiger skin, spots in a leopards skin, pattern on a fish scales, digit formation in limbs etc (Check figure below). One of the key mathematical/ physical insights that this paper gives rise to, is the idea of Turing instability. I came across the idea of Turing instability very recently. Frankly I had read Turing's morphogenesis paper some time back but the counter-intuitiveness of the Turing instability was something that I glossed over. In my defense, Turing explained the instability as a long paragraph rather than writing it down in equations, which made it very off-putting for me. Th