One thing I try to impress upon my students is how the mathematics they study relates to the world around them. I do this through analogies, examples, and stories.

During my first session of (winter) classes, I played a game called Chomp with a couple of my classes. I added a variant of that game that relates to number theory (the area of mathematics in which I wrote my first textbook), and held a tournament amongst the students. The student that won that tournament got to play me for a prize (a nice textbook) and beat me (no, I did not let him win!).

A few days ago I came across this article about how the game of Chomp, for which winning strategies are usually highly complex, actually relates to crystal structures. This research about a fairly simple game might provide insights into many kinds of physical structures. I have to wonder — where the mathematics does appear in the physical world, is this an indication that the analogous game is being played out in nature? I have to suppose that the answer is “Yes!”