Structure and Growth in the Living Tissue and in Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

The topological organisation of cells in a model of living tissue (the crypt of intestinal epithelium) is identical to the topological organisation of atoms in carbon nanotubes. The existing models of growth of these two structures contain identical elements. It is proposed that the growth of carbon nanotubes can depend also on other mechanisms postulated in the crypt model where the growth in the bottom is transmitted to the cylinder, and, in this case, the growth of nanotubes should involve the same peculiar lattice transformations as the ones found in the crypt models. The crypt models also suggest a possible initiation of growth in the nanotubes by the loss of carbon atoms. We consider the crystalline structures that can be formed from graphene and the structures of the living tissues as one distinct class of structures.