Imagine the researchers’ surprise, however, when their microscopes revealed that scutoid-shaped epithelial cells were pervasive in the human body, news they published last July in Nature Communications. The model indicated that epithelial cells should take the form of an unusual and previously unknown shape they named the “scutoid.” Of course, epithelial cells in nature were under no obligation to observe the model, especially as the oddly-shaped, not-previously-observed scutoid seemed like an unlikely candidate. Credit: Giuliagi Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) Given Voronoi tessellations’ prevalence in nature, Buceta and his colleagues used this mathematical model to predict the shape of epithelial cells, which among other things make up the surface of your skin and the inside of your throat, intestines and blood vessels. “Many times, the patterns you see in nature are Voronoi tessellations,” says Javier Buceta, a member of a team of Spanish, British, and American researchers that recently sought to predict the shape of epithelial cells-the cells that line the surfaces of our skin, intestines, blood vessels, and organs. All these natural patterns may be modeled with a mathematical technique known as a Voronoi tessellation. And the honeycomb cells built by bees also appear to fit together, although in this case arrangement is regular. The delicate veins on a dragonfly’s wings also outline a puzzle-like collection of irregular translucent cells. Look at giraffe’s fur and you’ll see a collection of irregular brown spots that fit together like puzzle pieces.
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