The discovery of Soft Cells by Gábor Domokos and Alain Goriely has officially reached orbit. This month, astronauts aboard the International Space Station completed the landmark f2 cell experiment, demonstrating how these cornerless shapes tile space using minimal surfaces—a phenomenon that can only be perfectly observed in microgravity.
For Discussion:
"Nature rarely uses the sharp 90-degree angles of a Euclidean grid. If Soft Cells - shapes defined by curved boundaries and minimal corners - are the true building blocks of biological tissues and shells, should our undergraduate geometry tracks pivot away from rigid polygons? Looking at the recent PNAS Nexus findings, how does this 'soft' geometry change our mathematical approach to bio-engineering and architectural integrity?"
