Feathers, Learn
Life is Good • 14m
Ornithologist Richard Prum shares his knowledge of the natural math of feather patterning. 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 neighboring cells. Richard Prum is the William Robertson Coe Professor of ornithology, and head curator of vertebrate zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.
Up Next in Life is Good
-
Stephanoceros | narrated
Meet a tiny 1000-celled animal living among single-cell organisms. Rotifers are among Earth's smallest animals, and even though this Stephanoceros is a giant rotifer, it is still barely visible to the unaided eye. Beautifully captured in award-winning video microscopy by Tom Jones. Original music...
-
Ants on Plants
Harvester ants climbing on plants, drinking from giant water droplets, and foraging for food. Ant colony members are constantly communicating with one another through their chemical language of pheromones, as well as tactile cues and even moving air molecules. To be able to drink the water, the a...
-
Cyanobacteria
Over a billion years ago, tiny jewel-like cyanobacteria oxygenated earth's atmosphere. These single-cell organisms are the reason we have air to breathe. Cyanobacteria are also believed to be the precursors responsible for photosynthesis and multicellularity as a whole. Cyanobacteria are found in...
