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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Biologists have long considered the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to be an exceedingly important and complex intracellular organelle in eukaryotes (like you!). It is a membrane structure, part folded sheet, part branching network, that both envelopes the nucleus and threads its way outward, all the way to the cell’s periphery. Microscopic images attest to its convoluted geometry, but can the complexity of its architecture be understood in a precise, mathematical way? Recently, refined imaging of the ER has revealed beautiful and subtle geometrical forms – "Terasaki ramps'' -- suggestive of Riemann sheets and helical minimal surfaces. What is the physics of these structures, and how do these fantastical architectural motifs connect to biological function?
