TURING, Alan.

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The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis. First edition, offprint issue, association copy, owned by Turing's close friend Norman Routledge. Turing's only published work on biology used mathematical modelling to propose an explanation for the occurrence of asymmetrical form in nature. Morphogenesis was groundbreaking in both its ideas and its methodology and has had immense influence on fields including developmental biology, chemistry, physics, and ecology. Like Turing, Routledge (1928-2013) was a mathematical fellow at King's College, Cambridge. Turing's letters to Routledge are among his most candid, particularly about his sexuality, which he knew Routledge would understand - Routledge himself later lived openly as a gay man. In a 1952 letter, Turing addressed to Routledge his now-famous syllogism: "Turing believes machines think / Turing lies with men / Therefore machines do not think / Yours in distress, Alan" (Hodges, p. xxx).The emergence of form in nature was a lifelong fascination for Turing, and he was able to devote time to it after his years at Bletchley Park. He was particularly interested in how asymmetrical patterns develop from initially symmetrical cells, as the process cannot be explained solely from the laws of physics. In Morphogenesis, Turing theorized that such patterns were created by a conceptual chemical species, which he termed morphogens, reacting and diffusing through tissue. He used mathematical modelling to demonstrate how this process could induce the

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