When Alessio visited the Birch Aquarium in San Diego, he was impressed by the sharpness of the boxfish’s intricate pattern: It’s made of a purple dot surrounded by a distinct hexagonal yellow outline ...

New research helps explain how sharp patterns form on zebras, leopards, tropical fish and other creatures. Their findings could inform the development of new high-tech materials and drugs.

Nature has no shortage of patterns, from spots on leopards to stripes on zebras and hexagons on boxfish. But a full explanation for how these patterns form has remained elusive. Now engineers at ...