We study the physics of soft materials and also do physics with soft
materials. In this talk, I will present an overview of some of our recent work
involving, in one or another way, the use of tori. We will cover how we make
toroidal and how we stabilize them against surface tension instabilities; this
altogether provides an interesting way to 3D print materials. We will then
discuss what we use toroidal droplets and hydrogels for. This includes the
study of conventional and active liquid crystals confined to toroidal spaces,
and addressing whether geometry affects cell behavior. I will then leave the
torus and briefly discuss our work with colloidal hydrogels and fire ant
aggregations.