ABSTRACT
If autocatalytic or oscillatory reactions take place in open and unstirred systems, they give rise to beautiful phenomena of spatial self-organization. When an autocatalytic species interplays with an inhibitor, and the diffusion of the inhibitor is faster than that of the activator, amazing spatially periodic Turing patterns can emerge. The mechanism that originates Turing structures is widespread in life. However, a complete understanding of the power of living beings to self-organize in space involves also other strategies. For instance, the events of mechanochemical patterning driven by motor proteins. Motor proteins guarantee a directional transport of molecules in a microscopic environment dominated by random motions. When chemical information must be transferred quickly and over long distances, chemical waves often intervene. For example, information travels fast within a neuron through the propagation of an action potential, which is an example of an electrochemical wave. Any chemical wave grounds, at least, on an autocatalytic process. The combination of an autocatalytic precipitation reaction with diffusion originates the surprising phenomenon of Liesegang patterns. The self-organization of Reaction-Diffusion systems described in this chapter can be employed in art and technology.
