Abstract
In nature, helical structures arise when identical structural subunits combine sequentially, the orientational and translational relation between each unit and its predecessor remaining constant. A helical structure is thus generated by the repeated action of a screw transformation acting on a subunit. A plane hexagonal lattice wrapped round a cylinder provides a useful starting point for describing the helical conformations of protein molecules, for investigating the geometrical properties of carbon nanotubes, and for certain types of dense packings of equal spheres.
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Lord, E.A. Helical Structures: The Geometry of Protein Helices and Nanotubes. Structural Chemistry 13, 305–314 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015863923728
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015863923728