How the fascination of mathematician Alan Turing with leopard stains led him to solve another enigma

Many of us marvel at the speckled skin of leopards or stripes that adorn zebras. However, a few later we wonder if there is an order in that apparent randomness of nature. And there are many fewer who try to find it using mathematics. However, there was someone who turned that fascination into a theory that solved an ancient enigma. That person was the pioneer in computer science Alan Turing who, in a remarkable shift of approach, diverted his a…