Niba: Researchers discovered a new shape that puts an end to a six-decade geometrical scavenger hunt. The goal was to find a shape that tiles together with itself in an infinite, non-repeating pattern. It's called an "einstein tile," but not after, you know, the guy; it's just German for "one stone."

See, while lots of shapes like these can fit together perfectly without overlapping or leaving gaps, they form a repeating pattern, like this honeycomb. So mathematicians genuinely didn't know if an einstein tile could exist.

But in March 2023, a team of researchers announced their 13-sided tile called "the hat" - a true einstein tile. As of this filming, the paper hasn't been peer reviewed yet, but its discovery could lead to cool breakthroughs in material science.

For instance, there's 3D structures similar to einstein tiles called "quasicrystals" that have unique properties like having really low conductivity, which gives them potential as a future non-stick coating for cookware. Dunno if that means you can use 'em in your bathroom tiling, though.

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