A cross section of a chambered nautilus shell shows the newly defined shape, the "soft cell," repeating outward in a spiral. FlamingPumpkin via Getty Images When humans cover a space using tiles of ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Hard as it may be to imagine, there’s a newly defined geometric ...

How few corners can a shape have and still tile the plane?” mathematician Gábor Domokos asked me over pizza. His deceptively simple question was about the geometry of tilings, also called ...

Tiling a space with a repeated pattern that has no gaps or overlaps (a structure known as a tessellation) is what led mathematician [Gábor Domokos] to ponder a question: how few corners can a shape ...