| Abstract Scope |
Living organisms are, for the most part, subjected to external tractions or internal stresses acting at the cellular, tissue, organ, and organ system levels. These play an important role in determining their hierarchical components, and influence evolution. Mechanics can reveal and quantify the nature of the relationships between internal and external constraints in one hand, and structural features, on the other. We illustrate some of these relationships for several organic systems studied by our group: pine cones, fish scales, avian bones and feathers, and mammal dermis. Mechanics is a powerful tool to analyze new and yet unexplored relationships. Research supported by the Air Force Office of Science and Technology (MURI) and the Humboldt Foundation. |