We all know that the geometric object of minimal surface area amongst all shapes with a fixed volume is the round ball, whose boundary is spherical. Water blobs try to minimise surface area and curl into spherical droplets. The physical problem of surface-area minimisation is thus quite well understood. What about the opposite problem of surface-area maximisation? Does the problem even make sense? Indeed it does. Trees try to maximise surface area to get the most of sunlight through their leaves.
Physicists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have discovered that pure mathematical formulae developed by Srinivasa Ramanujan over a century ago for calculating the value of pi are fundamentally connected to modern high-energy physics.