MSc. Media Technology – Scientific Narration & Visualisation – Spring 2019
In the summer of 2018 there were articles in the news, reporting that scientists from the University of Sevilla had discovered a new shape: the scutoid.
My goal is to find out and explain what scutoids are, how they are shaped and can be packed together with other shapes, how they were discovered and what is so special about them.
The chosen form is a set of 3D puzzle pieces shaped like scutoids, accompanied by a booklet. The booklet tells the story of the discovery of the scutoid and explains how biologists and mathematicians worked together to find it. The booklet also contains two Voronoi maps on which the 3D puzzle pieces can be placed and packed together in two different ways. This 3D puzzle allows people to explore how scutoids “exchange neighbors” and gives an insight into how their geometry builds up strong and flexible surfaces. In addition, the chosen form aims to inspire people by the inventiveness of nature and the fruitful collaboration of the multidisciplinary research team.
Click here to read the booklet.
References
Gómez-Gálvez, P. et al. (2018). Scutoids are a geometrical solution to three-dimensional packing of epithelia. Nature Communications, 9(1). doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05376-1
Scutoid. (2019). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutoid
