The swirling currents occur when the rodlike structures that extend inward from the cells’ membranes bend in tandem, like stalks of wheat caught in a strong

Dr Natasha Morrison is a Research Fellow in mathematics at Sidney Sussex College and a member of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics. She completed her PhD at Oxford and her undergraduate studies at Durham. Her research focuses on a branch of mathematics which models the behaviours of networks, from how diseases spread to how viral stories circulate on social media.