Happy scientific accident.

I was in photoshop and intending to use the gradient map. (Image > Adjustment > Gradient Map)

I accidentally clicked an existing saved gradient and realized I had made sort of a scientific texture.

You know, like that sort of stuff:

 Here's my photoshop gradient:

And that's the result on my texture:

The real question is: what on earth did I create such a gradient for in the first place??