Bundt Cake and the Scutoid

[S3 Biology and up: Cells]

For many, many years, scientists struggled with the shape and structure of the cells within the body.

Extracting it on a petri dish risks crushing and deforming the cells while causing bodily harm, making a thorough analysis exceedingly difficult, especially where highly-sensitive cells (such as epithelia cells) are concerned. Taking a scalpel to cut open a piece of a liver to study risks killing the cells too quickly, after all.

A mathematical model, on the other hand, is a lot more ethical in the analysis of cells where no human beings need to be harmed in the process.

We may have the tendency to want things in the world to fit a specific, well-defined and uniform shape, such as a sphere or a prism where the front and back ends are uniform; but just remember, it's the bizarre and unusual shapes that make us who we are.