Paul Harrison's honours thesis, 1999
Supervised by Dr. Alan Dorin
Full text in gzipped postscript format
Reaction-diffusion systems are a decentralized mechanism believed to explain certain aspects of morphogenesis. In order to create geometric models with growth controlled by reaction-diffusion, reaction-diffusion systems were simulated in the cells of a cellular automata. In particular, aspects of the growth of hydra are modelled. It is believed that the hydra controls its growth using a chemical gradient created by reaction-diffusion. It is shown that this combination of reaction-diffusion and cellular automata can model the placement of head and foot on a hydra's body, the formation of tentacles around its mouth, and at least partly explain the formation of buds (which are hydra's means of reproduction). Such models demonstrate how reaction-diffusion could control growth in the process of morphogenesis.