Comments on: The Many Faces of Carbon http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2010/10/the-many-faces-of-carbon/ Ideas, innovations and discoveries from the world of science Thu, 23 May 2013 23:31:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Michael Pyshnov http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2010/10/the-many-faces-of-carbon/comment-page-1/#comment-2484 Michael Pyshnov Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:05:53 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/?p=4921#comment-2484 In 1980, I published an article describing a model of one biological structure - the crypt of intestinal epithelium, completely similar to the structure later found in graphene tubes (Pyshnov, M. B., Topological Solution for Cell Proliferation in Intestinal Crypt, J. theor. Biol., 1980, v.87, 189-200). In 2005, Sergei Fedorov and myself published a computer simulation of topological transformations occuring in the model of the crypt (http://www.cell-division-program.com/index.php). Apparently, these works remain largely unknown to physicists, with the exception of one reference to them (www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~coqusy06/SLIDES/vozmediano.pdf), where the structure of the crypt is called "a living curiosity". Only from this reference I learned about graphene. Publications describing graphene tubes are appearing, repeating the discovery of topological properties found in the model of the crypt. Some of them are adding a topological closure to the graphene tube at one end. Such closure is completely similar to the bottom part of the crypt model. I am not sure, however, that the interdependency between the structure of this closure and the structure of the cylindrical part of the graphene tube is understood in the degree it was shown in my 1980 paper and subsequently in the computer model of 2005. The crypt model also includes the complex process of replacing dying cells with the new cells appearing by cell division, while graphene is a structure not capable of anything like multiplication of the elements of its structure, the atoms. However, when the formation of defects in the structure of graphene occurs, the explanation of structural transformations found in the crypt model can probably be helpful. To conclude, I find the striking similarities very delightful, and I hope that one day biological structures will receive at least as much attention of the researchers. In 1980, I published an article describing a model of one biological structure – the crypt of intestinal epithelium, completely similar to the structure later found in graphene tubes (Pyshnov, M. B., Topological Solution for Cell Proliferation in Intestinal Crypt, J. theor. Biol., 1980, v.87, 189-200). In 2005, Sergei Fedorov and myself published a computer simulation of topological transformations occuring in the model of the crypt (http://www.cell-division-program.com/index.php). Apparently, these works remain largely unknown to physicists, with the exception of one reference to them (www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~coqusy06/SLIDES/vozmediano.pdf), where the structure of the crypt is called “a living curiosity”. Only from this reference I learned about graphene.

Publications describing graphene tubes are appearing, repeating the discovery of topological properties found in the model of the crypt. Some of them are adding a topological closure to the graphene tube at one end. Such closure is completely similar to the bottom part of the crypt model. I am not sure, however, that the interdependency between the structure of this closure and the structure of the cylindrical part of the graphene tube is understood in the degree it was shown in my 1980 paper and subsequently in the computer model of 2005.

The crypt model also includes the complex process of replacing dying cells with the new cells appearing by cell division, while graphene is a structure not capable of anything like multiplication of the elements of its structure, the atoms. However, when the formation of defects in the structure of graphene occurs, the explanation of structural transformations found in the crypt model can probably be helpful. To conclude, I find the striking similarities very delightful, and I hope that one day biological structures will receive at least as much attention of the researchers.

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