Students in Shoreham-Wading River High School’s AP Precalculus, AP Calculus and Calculus classes attended a field trip on Oct. 4 to the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University to attend a lecture given by Professor Ian Stewart. Approximately 60 students attended with math teachers Mrs. Ellen Fraser and Mr. James Barry as part of the Della Pietra Lecture Series.

Professor Stewart, a mathematician at the University of Warwick, England, presented an abstract: “A leopard cannot change its spots — but how did it get the spots in the first place?”

The talk explained the underlying mathematics in simple terms, mainly through pictures. It illustrated with numerous examples in the animal kingdom, and mentioned recent research that confirms some aspects of mathematician Alan Turing’s theory of how the patterns of animal markings form, based on chemicals called morphogens that react and diffuse during key stages of the animal’s development.

Date Added: 10/5/2023