How does the skin develop follicles and eventually sprout hair? Research from a team including Oxford Mathematicians Ruth Baker and Linus Schumacher addresses this question using insights gleaned from organoids, 3D assemblies of cells possessing rudimentary skin structure and function, including the ability to grow hair.
It is an intriguing fact that the 3-dimensional world in which we live is, from a mathematical point of view, rather special. Dimension 3 is very different from dimension 4 and these both have very different theories from that of dimensions 5 and above. The study of space in dimensions 2, 3 and 4 is the field of low-dimensional topology, the research area of Oxford Mathematician Marc Lackenby.
Oxford Mathematician Nick Trefethen was recently awarded the George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) "for the exceptionally well-expressed accumulated insights found in his books, papers, essays, and talks." Here Nick refllects on the award, his approach to mathematics and the ever-ex