– Mathematicians from Budapest University of Technology have discovered a new class of shapes called “soft cells” or “z-cells” that have the ability to tile space in both two and three dimensions.
– Unlike classical mathematical shapes that are based on straight edges and points, these soft cells have curved edges and fewer sharp corners.
– The researchers found that these soft cell shapes naturally occur in biology, like in the sections of muscle tissue where cells have only two sharp corners rather than the classical three corners of a triangle.
– In two dimensions, the soft cells can be described as shapes with curved boundaries and only two corners. In three dimensions, they can have no corners at all.
– Seashells were identified as a prime example of this soft cell shape in nature, as microscope analysis found their growth chambers lack distinct corners even though they appear sharper in two dimensions.
– This discovery shows how nature utilizes non-rigid geometric shapes beyond what classical mathematics predicts, and how these “ideal soft shapes” abundantly appear throughout biological systems, from cells to shells.
Source: popularmechanics
