Mathematicians Uncovered A New Class Of Shape Known As Soft Cells, Which Have Been Present In Nature Long Before Humans Even Knew About Them

The softest cells were shaped almost like a saddle, with curved wing-like flaps that stretched outward.

The team speculates that any pattern of tiling that consists of regular straight-edged polyhedrons can be made softer, although they have not proven this idea to be true yet.

Soft cells could tell scientists more about biology. For instance, they could provide insights into tip growth, a type of cell expansion that is widespread in nature, particularly in algae and fungi. They could also explain why nature prefers some patterns over others.

The absence of straight edges and sharp corners in nature may be a way of conserving energy, as natural forces like elasticity and surface tension end up smoothing out corners automatically. Soft cells are everywhere in the world if you know how to look for them.

“The lack of sharp corners and their soft, highly curved geometry makes soft cells ideal candidate models for biological structures which evolved under full or partial constraint to fill space,” concluded the research team.

The study was published in the journal PNAS Nexus.