Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

A new tool for shape and structure optimization of soft materials

We present Morpho, an extensible programmable environment that uses finite elements for shape optimization in soft matter. Given an energy functional that incorporates physical boundaries and effects such as elasticity and electromagnetism, together with additional constraints to be satisfied, Morpho predicts the optimized shape and structure adopted by the material.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Optimized shapes in soft materials.

References

  1. Brakke, K. A. The surface evolver. Exp. Math. 1, 141–165 (1992). This report describes a widely used software for shape optimization that uses explicit methods.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen, L. Q. Phase-field models for microstructure evolution. Ann. Rev. Mat. Res. 32, 113–140 (2002). A review on phase field methods of shape optimization.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Powers, T. R., Huber, G. & Goldstein, R. E. Fluid-membrane tethers: minimal surfaces and elastic boundary layers. Phys. Rev. E 65, 041901 (2002). An article that describes the extrusion of tubules from a lipid membrane.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. DeBenedictis, A. & Atherton, T. J. Shape minimisation problems in liquid crystals. Liq. Cryst. 43, 2352–2362 (2016). An early article from our group on shape optimization for anisotropic fluids.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Joshi, C., Giso, M. Q., Louf, J.-F., Datta, S. S. & Atherton, T. J. An energy-optimization method to study gel-swelling in confinement. Soft Matter 19, 7184–7191 (2023). An article that describes the hydrogel swelling problem.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Joshi, C. et al. A programmable environment for shape optimization and shapeshifting problems. Nat. Comput. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-024-00749-7 (2024).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

A new tool for shape and structure optimization of soft materials. Nat Comput Sci 5, 103–104 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-024-00754-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-024-00754-w

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing AI and Robotics

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics newsletter — what matters in AI and robotics research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics