There’s a reason fashion designers look to animal prints for inspiration. Creatures have evolved a dizzying array of patterns: stripes, spots, diamonds, chevrons, hexagons and even mazelike designs.

Some patterns arise simply or randomly, but others develop via complex, precise interactions of pattern-generating systems. Their beauty aside, the intricacies of these systems are inspiring the ...

Stripe patterns are commonly seen in nature—for instance, birds and fish move in coordinated flocks and schools, fingerprints form unique designs, and zebras can be identified by their distinctive ...

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. How did the zebra get its stripes? This burning question has had biologists, Charles Darwin and the rest of us scratching our heads for ...

Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland features around 40,000 exposed polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections. Chris Hill/Photodisc via Getty Images The reason patterns often appear ...

Stripes are common in our lives. It’s a pretty basic pattern, and easy to take for granted. As an applied mathematician who studies how patterns form in nature, though, I am wowed by the striped ...