COMPASS is pleased to highlight a new Nature publication exploring how real-world physical networks—from the brain’s connectome to vascular systems, trees, corals, and fungi—are shaped by deeper geometric constraints than previously understood.
In “Surface optimization governs the local design of physical networks,” Xiangyi Meng, Benjamin Piazza, Csaba Both, Baruch Barzel, and Senior Author Prof. Albert-László Barabási show that traditional “wiring minimization” models often fail to explain what scientists observe in high-resolution network data. Instead, the paper finds evidence that surface minimization in 3D space plays a key role in determining local branching geometry.
This framework helps explain structural features commonly seen in physical networks, including trifurcations, varied branching angles, and orthogonal sprouts—patterns that are difficult to account for using length-only optimization rules.
Notably, Prof. Barabási is a funded Principal Investigator (PI) through COMPASS, reflecting COMPASS’s mission to support cross-disciplinary research that connects physics, complex systems, and biological organization.