# gst: like grains of sand in a sandcastle

<< Cells comprising a tissue can pack into disorderly geometries much as do grains of sand in a sandcastle. In doing so they can freeze into a fixed shape—as in a sandcastle—or flow like sand poured from a beach bucket >>

<< This finding makes a deep connection between the physics of inert granular matter such as sand and the geometry of multicellular living systems >> Lior Atia.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Sandcastles and surprising origins of basic cellular functions. Apr 2, 2018

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-sandcastles-basic-cellular-functions.html

Lior Atia, Dapeng Bi, et al. Geometric constraints during epithelial jamming. Nature Physics. doi: 10.1038/s41567-018-0089-9. Apr 2, 2018.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0089-9