// instruments · geochembio
geochembio
True or myth? The same shapes keep showing up across geology, chemistry, and biology — hexagons, spirals, branches, symmetry. Some of the popular stories about why are real. Some just sound plausible.
Honeybee comb cells are hexagons because that shape uses the least wax for the storage space needed — and that's a proven mathematical fact.
// sources
Hales, "The Honeycomb Conjecture" (1999) · Karihaloo, Zhang & Wang, "The hexagonal shape of honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees," Scientific Reports (2016) · standard columnar-jointing geology (Giant's Causeway) · nautilus growth-ratio measurements (Smithsonian specimens; see also "MythBusters: The Golden Ratio Around Us," HKUST) · Shechtman et al., quasicrystal discovery, Physical Review Letters (1984); 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry · manganese oxide dendrites as pseudofossils (standard mineralogy) · Libbrecht, "The Formation of Snow Crystals," American Scientist (2007), building on Nakaya (1930s) · Murray, "The Physiological Principle of Minimum Work," PNAS (1926).