New preprint. Cells in embryonic skin move apart quickly following division, dispersing themselves across the tissue and making it easier for them to find and enter hair follicles. Migratory direction and speed are influenced by physical tension. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

These plots of cell tracks and speed show the behaviour. The track of a mother cell up to division is in black and those of its daughters in blue and red. Mother moves slowly and randomly, but the daughters spread apart rapidly in bursts over the 3 hours following division.

The choice between fingerprint types of arch, loop or whorl is influenced by genes involved in growth and shaping of the developing fingers. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

Very happy to have contributed to this issue on biological pattern formation late last year, with Mariya Ptashnyk and Kevin Painter. We focussed on how the small, numerous structures, like hair follicles, branches or projecting intestinal villi, are produced within large organs.

Turing originally presented his influences as chemicals, though he and others were aware that different processes could be at play. Experimental work has substantiated Turing's ideas, but often with many more than just the two chemical signals that he chose as a simple example.