Biology
Enzyme kinetics, Turing patterns, epidemic waves, coral reefs and ant colonies — life's algorithms, visualised.
🧪 Simulations (8)
❓ Frequently asked questions
What are Turing patterns?
Reaction-diffusion systems with two chemicals (activator + inhibitor) at different diffusion rates spontaneously form spots, stripes, or labyrinths. Alan Turing proposed this in 1952 to explain leopard spots, fish stripes and the spacing of bird-feather buds.
How do epidemics spread?
Compartmental models (SIR, SEIR) track Susceptible → Infected → Recovered fractions. The basic reproduction number R₀ — average secondary infections per case — determines whether an outbreak grows or dies out. Heterogeneous mixing, vaccination and behavioural changes modify R₀ dynamically.
What is enzyme kinetics?
Enzymes accelerate reactions by binding substrate (S) into a complex (ES), then releasing product (P): E + S ⇌ ES → E + P. The Michaelis-Menten equation v = V_max·[S]/(K_M+[S]) describes the rate. K_M is the substrate concentration at half-maximal rate.
What is an ant colony's emergent intelligence?
No ant directs the colony; foraging emerges from local pheromone interactions. Ants deposit trail pheromone, others follow stronger trails. Short paths accumulate pheromone faster (less evaporation per round-trip), so colonies converge on optimal routes — Ant Colony Optimization.
What is a food web?
Food webs map who-eats-whom in an ecosystem. Lotka-Volterra equations capture predator-prey oscillations: prey grows exponentially without predators, predators die without prey, and feedback creates limit cycles. Adding more species creates complex dynamics including chaos.