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Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1937 - 1942, DOI: 10.1039/b802733a
Membrane elasticity molds aggregates of simple cells
P. Ziherl and S. Svetina
At first glance, quite a few tissues in simple animals or in the early development look similar to an assembly of soap bubbles. The undeniable appeal of this correspondence, the seemingly elementary surface-tension Hamiltonian, and the prospect of a mechanical model of biological structures have fueled research in the field for over a century. However, the correspondence is far from perfect and the Hamiltonian of soap-froth-like systems hard to solve. Yet the prospects of a physical interpretation of the form of some cell aggregates are good.
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