In 1887, Lord Kelvin, best known for his temperature scale and for the definition of absolute zero - published 'On the Division of Space with Minimum Partitional Areas'.

At the time there was no explanation for how light could travel through a vacuum, and Kelvin thought space must have a structure through which it transmitted, in the same way that sound transmits through air. Kelvin's solution for the structure of space was a doubly-curved truncated octahedron -the 'Kelvin cell'. This he suggested was the most efficient structure that could fill all of space with no overlaps and no gaps. The extraordinarily complex calculations necessary to arrive at this solution were carried out by hand, long before computers were invented.

The Kelvin cell was not surpassed for more than 100 years, when in 1993 Denis Weaire and Robert Phelan used computer power to prove the Weaire-Phelan structure was slightly more efficient, with a surface area 0.3% less than Kelvin's cell. 

In 2024, Gregor used 3D computer modelling and animation software to generate a lattice of thousands of Kelvin cells, creating, for the first time, a true visual representation of Kelvin's structure for space.

The model was used as the basis for two large paintings commissioned by the University of Glasgow to mark 200 years since Kelvin's birth.

You can find out more about the paintings here.