Designing Dupin cydides in micro and macro worlds

摘要

Interconnection of physics and geometry is a hallmark of modern science. Focal conic domains (FCDs) in smectic liquid crystals, the subject of a PNAS article by Honglawan et al. (1), represent a beautiful example of this relationship.Early in the 20th century, Friedel and Grandjean (2) used a microscope to observe the intermediate states that appeared in some organic materials between a solid crystal and a regular fluid when the temperature was varied. The textures showed translucent regions with embedded dark lines.