Geometry Has a New Shape. Meet the 'Scutoid.'
This shape — new to math, not to nature — is the form that a group of cells in the body takes in order to pack tightly and efficiently into the tricky curves of organs, scientists reported in a new paper, published July 27 in the journal Nature Communications [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05376-1] [DX].
The cells, called epithelial cells, line most surfaces in an animal's body, including the skin, other organs and blood vessels. These cells are typically described in biology books as column-like or having some sort of prism shape — two parallel faces and a certain number of parallelogram sides. Sometimes, they can also be described as a bottle-like form of a prism called a "frustum."
But by using computational modeling, the group of scientists found that epithelial cells can take a new shape, previously unrecognized by mathematics, when they have to pack together tightly to form the bending parts of organs. The scientists named the shape "scutoid" after a triangle-shaped part of a beetle's thorax called the scutellum. The scutoid itself looks like a bent prism with five slightly slanted sides and one corner cut off.
The researchers later confirmed the presence of the new shape in the epithelial cells of fruit-fly salivary glands and embryos.
By packing into scutoids, the cells minimize their energy use and maximize how stable they are when they pack, the researchers said in a statement. And uncovering such elegant mathematics of nature can provide engineers with new models to inspire delicate human-made tissues.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snotnose on Tuesday July 31 2018, @11:56PM (6 children)
I'd hate to calculate the volume of that thing.
Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday August 01 2018, @02:23AM
I would have thought a "scutoid" would be shaped like a scutum.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 01 2018, @02:24AM (4 children)
It's actually simple. You count how many of them are used to fill the gap between two planes and divide the volume between the planes by the number you counted.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday August 01 2018, @02:34AM (3 children)
Would that be the 737 plane or the A300 plane?
My head hurts, send thoughts and prayers (or money works too) to:
Snotnose
8655 Graves #2
Santee, Ca 92071
/ not my real address
// not current, at least
/// I understand money can follow a person after they move, so monetize those thoughts and prayers!
Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:43AM (2 children)
"Plane" does not mean what you think it does, sorry.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @06:10PM
Whoosh!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @05:05PM
if you speak in plane English, it does.