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Minimal surfaces (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

...have become an area of intense mathematical and scientific study
over the past 15 years, specifically in the areas of
molecular engineering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_engineering
and materials science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_science
[to] nanotechnology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology applications.

In mathematics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics
a minimal surface is a surface with a mean curvature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_curvature of zero.

This includes, but is not limited to, surfaces of minimum area
subject to constraints on the location of their boundary.

Minimal surfaces include catenoids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenoid
and helicoids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicoid

A minimal surface made by rotating a catenary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary
once around the axis is called a catenoid. A surface swept out by a line rotating
with uniform velocity around an axis perpendicular to the line and simultaneously
moving along the axis with uniform velocity is called a helicoid.