The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry - Tessellation Proliferation

We may think of tessellation as being about how to tile a flat plane but this week we reveal how repeating patterns actually occur all over the place, and can even help us solve some of nature's most complex problems.

The presenters start with the simple principal that for shapes to fill a space without leaving any gaps or overlapping, the angles in the corners have to add up to exactly 360° - which means squares, triangles and hexagons are all strong contenders. Then they try their hand at creating their own tiles, based on a technique referred to as the 'Escher' method.

If you have an everyday mystery for the team to investigate, contact them on curiouscases@bbc.co.uk.

Contributors:

Dr Katie Steckles
Prof Mark Miodownik
Dr Vince Gallo

Producer: Lucy Taylor
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
A BBC Studios Production