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Mysterious, bare patches of ground that polka-dot the deserts of Namibia and Australia are far more widespread than we knew. They're known as fairy circles, and a new global assessment has counted 263 sites where these bald spots can be found, spread across three continents and 15 countries, including Sahel, Madagascar, and Middle-West Asia. This new information could help scientists figure out what causes them, a question that is proving surprisingly tricky to answer. "We conducted a global and systematic assessment of fairy circle-like vegetation patterns and discovered hundreds of [fairy-circle]-like locations on three continents," write a team led by...

It was 1952, and Alan Turing was about to reshape humanity's understanding of biology. Fairy circles in Namibia. (pum_eva/Getty Images) ============================================================================== In a landmark paper, the English mathematician introduced what became known as the Turing pattern – the notion that the dynamics of certain uniform systems could give rise to stable patterns when disturbed. Such 'order from disturbance' has become the theoretical basis for all sorts of strange, repeated motifs seen in the natural world. It was a good theory. So good, in fact, that decades later, scientists are still discovering stunning examples of it in unusual and exotic places:...

'Fairy circles' of Africa baffle scientists (Filed: 10/05/2004) Twenty-five years of research fail to find the cause of a mysterious natural phenomenon, reports Tim Butcher at Wolwedans Camp One of Africa's most mysterious natural phenomena still cannot be explained despite 25 years of research, scientists admitted yesterday. Rings known as "fairy circles" that pockmark vast areas of desert in Namibia and South Africa have baffled botanists from the University of Pretoria and the Polytechnic of Namibia. They have ruled out termite activity, poisoning from toxic indigenous plants, contamination from radioactive minerals and even ostrich dust baths as possible causes. "At...

Enigma of Namibia's 'fairy-circles' - Namibia's "fairy circles" are a popular tourist attraction South African botanists say they have failed to explain the mysterious round patches of bare sandy soil found in grassland on Namibia's coastal fringe. They looked into possible causes of the "fairy circles" - radioactive soil, toxic proteins left by poisonous plants, and termites eating the seeds. But tests do not support any of these theories for the rings which are 2-10m across, New Scientist magazine reports. For now, the botanists are left with "fairies" to explain the phenomenon. Termite trenches Lead scientist Gretel van Rooyen is...