Mighty Morphogenesis, or how the fish got its spots | Thomas Woolley | TEDxNewcastle
During his short life Alan Turing revolutionised the fields of logic, computation, mathematics and cryptoanalysis, doing all of this before he was even 42. Here, Thomas will present a celebration of Alan’s work and focus on one of his least well-known theories about the construction of patterns and its applications to biological complexity. This work was so far ahead of its time that it took another 30-40 years before it was fully appreciated and, even today, it is still able to provide new avenues of research.
Starting from an intuitive understanding of his theory Thomas will lead you through 60 years of beauty in terms of mathematics and patterns. Critically, by the end of the talk you should understand why mathematicians love cheetahs, but hate ring tailed lemurs.
Thomas Woolley has been doing mathematics at University of Oxford since 2004 and now specialises in mathematical biology as a Junior Research Fellow at St John’s College. His doctorate focused on the applications of Turing’s patterning theory to biology, but now he researches mathematical models of stem cells movement. The hope is that by understanding how stem cells move we can influence them and, thus, speed up the healing process.
When not doing mathematics he is a keen participant in mathematical outreach workshops and has given a variety of popular maths lectures nationally and internationally. He has previously worked for the BBC, illustrated Marcus du Sautoy’s book and he recently worked on the popular maths show “Dara O’Briains school of hard sums”. He is currently the Fellow of Modern Mathematics at the London Science Museum and is helping redesign their mathematics gallery.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
Пікірлер: 18
This video is criminally under-viewed. This speaker has everything: the wit, the brevity and the dedication to wear that vest!
My personal theory is that in the case of vertebrates we all descended from an ancestor that could change it's skin like octopus do to trick predators. As early vertebrates became bigger, faster, stronger they became the predators and most lost this ability. But the patterns were kept in our DNA. It would be like having a storage to choose from randomly. From there as generations pass by the patterns mutate on their own slowly but noticeable. In the case of birds and mammals. Eumelanin starts as spots, t shaped, c shaped, lines, etc. As the fetus grows, so do the patterns. When they touch each other they become more complex. This would be like Dark Matter and the Universe. Dark Matter is the glue of Mass.
5:03 was really awkward
@sophiamc3684
4 жыл бұрын
yes it was lol
I think it’s difficult stuff. When you have a agar plate with bacteria I can understand the system. But how do the body cells communicate in animal to make such patterns. Is there an inhibitor or activator body cells talking to each other?(excuse me for my bad English, I am Dutch)
Can this be applied to Pandas colors?
You can't talk about equations and then not show us any! I feel denied. :(
10:07 10:14
I feel like there are so many parts where he was trying to be funny but no one laughs so its just awkward.
@jiadong7873
2 жыл бұрын
it's only you...
@brastdoor1231
6 ай бұрын
It was not only you!
How does this video of everything have no comments??!!??
@RichOrElse
7 жыл бұрын
We don't know, I'm surprised as you are.
@significantmatters8740
3 жыл бұрын
No pattern emerged yet. Let's wait for diffusion
@rustyshackleford9877
7 ай бұрын
@@significantmatters8740i sense some instability in the pattern.
Not really accurate to say Alan Turing shortened WW2 by two years. The Manhattan project ensured WW2 ended in 1945 and would not have gone on any longer
you didn't explain the chemical nature of the patterns at all. the sensitibity to initial conditions is also not mentioned. How dumbed down do you have to make these exactly? because that's not really complicated ideas to explain here. I bet there's lots of weird stuff that happens in between for that lol
Presentation of a college student