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Calum is a lecturer in physics at Edge Hill University where he studies topological solitons and enjoys talking about maths and physics to anyone who will listen. He can often be found on the side of a mountain or out on a bike, talking to himself about solitons.

On the cover: Folding hydrogels, encoding mathematics
Ellen Jolley and Kat Phillips know when to hold, and when to fold
Oπnions: In defence of toy models
Calum gets on his soap box about toy models
Cryptic wordsearch, Issue 19
Can you solve it?
On the cover: skyrmions
Sven Bjarke Gudnason and Calum Ross introduce you to the wonderful world of skyrmions
Celebrating simple mathematical models
Hollis Williams explores the power even simple models can have in describing the world around us.
Dear Dirichlet, Issue 09
Coffee, Brexit and badgers are among the topics of discussion in this issue's Dear Dirichlet advice column