Researchers work to produce periodic table of shapes

New Scientist : Researchers have built a computer program that can represent atoms and other objects as shapes in four and five dimensions as well as three, and provide new insights into the properties of those atoms. The software turns the shapes into differential equations, then examines the shapes’ flow, looking for the unique patterns that signify an atom. Tom Coates, a mathematician at Imperial College London, and his colleagues plan to generate lists of shapes in higher dimensions and then group the shapes in each list according to their properties, much as atoms are grouped in the periodic table of elements. The work could provide insights into string theory and superconductivity.