Geometric Structures in Materials: What Does Nature Optimise? - Dr Andreas Alpers
25th March 2023
In a little booklet, 'De nive sexangula (1611)', generally regarded as the world's first scientific treatise on crystallography, the famous astronomer (and mathematician) Johannes Kepler links honeycombs, snowflakes and pomegranate seeds while pondering on the problem of why they form their particular geometric structures. Kepler postulates that these structures are formed because of 'material necessity', optimising certain properties. Starting from here, we will investigate this further and depart on a mathematical journey through the wonderful world of sphere packings, Voronoi structures and discrete optimisation.