Feathers

(2019) - 14 min

AnimalsEducationalNatureScience

The feather patterns of the Great Argus Pheasant are among the world's most beautiful and complex. Simple feather patterns can be predicted using mathematical models called Turing reaction-diffusion equations. As a feather grows, each new cell must decide whether it will receive pigment or not, depending on overlapping chemical gradients and the pigmentation of its neighboring cells. This episode was made in collaboration with the Harvard Museum of Natural History.