Glasgow Science Festival: Celebrating Lord Kelvin’s 200th Birthday: The Kelvin Bubble

Ever wondered why bees build honeycombs with identical 2D hexagons? William Thompson (a.k.a. Lord Kelvin) of the University of Glasgow University did. He identified the tetrakaidekahedron, a solid figure with 14 faces and its bubble equivalent, the Kelvin Cell. A 3D space-filling building block! Celebrate the 200th birthday of the University of Glasgow’s greatest scientist through a mathematical, scientific, and artistic exploration of Kelvin’s foam model of the luminiferous aether, which was then believed to permeate the entire Universe! A collaboration between the University of Glasgow’s School of Mathematics & Statistics (led by Dr Stephen J. Watson), the School of Physics and Astronomy, and artist Dr Gregor Harvie.