Mechanical Design in Organisms

Mechanical Design in Organisms PDF Author: Stephen A. Wainwright
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691083087
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
This book deals with an interface between mechanical engineering and biology. It reviews biological structural materials and systems and their mechanically important features and demonstrates that function at any particular level of biological integration is permitted and controlled by structure at lower levels of integration.

Mechanical Design in Organisms

Mechanical Design in Organisms PDF Author: Stephen A. Wainwright
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691083087
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
This book deals with an interface between mechanical engineering and biology. It reviews biological structural materials and systems and their mechanically important features and demonstrates that function at any particular level of biological integration is permitted and controlled by structure at lower levels of integration.

Solid Biomechanics

Solid Biomechanics PDF Author: Roland Ennos
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691135509
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Offering a review of the biomechanical design of organisms, from bacteria onwards, this book shows how the bodies of animals & plants are masterpieces of engineering, enabling them to survive in a hostile world.

Mechanical Design of Structural Materials in Animals

Mechanical Design of Structural Materials in Animals PDF Author: John M. Gosline
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691176876
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Mechanical Design of Structural Materials in Animals explores the principles underlying how molecules interact to produce the functional attributes of biological materials: their strength and stiffness, ability to absorb and store energy, and ability to resist the fatigue that accrues through a lifetime of physical insults. These attributes play a central role in determining the size and shape of animals, the ways in which they can move, and how they interact with their environment. By showing how structural materials have been designed by evolution, John Gosline sheds important light on how animals work. Gosline elucidates the pertinent theories for how molecules are arranged into macromolecular structures and how those structures are then built up into whole organisms. In particular, Gosline develops the theory of discontinuous, fiber-reinforced composites, which he employs in a grand synthesis to explain the properties of everything from the body wall of sea anemones to spiders' silks and insect cuticles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Although the theories are examined in depth, Gosline's elegant discussion makes them accessible to anyone with an interest in the mechanics of life. Focusing on the materials from which animals are constructed, this book answers fundamental questions about mechanical properties in nature.

Mechanical Design of Structural Materials in Animals

Mechanical Design of Structural Materials in Animals PDF Author: John M. Gosline
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400889839
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Mechanical Design of Structural Materials in Animals explores the principles underlying how molecules interact to produce the functional attributes of biological materials: their strength and stiffness, ability to absorb and store energy, and ability to resist the fatigue that accrues through a lifetime of physical insults. These attributes play a central role in determining the size and shape of animals, the ways in which they can move, and how they interact with their environment. By showing how structural materials have been designed by evolution, John Gosline sheds important light on how animals work. Gosline elucidates the pertinent theories for how molecules are arranged into macromolecular structures and how those structures are then built up into whole organisms. In particular, Gosline develops the theory of discontinuous, fiber-reinforced composites, which he employs in a grand synthesis to explain the properties of everything from the body wall of sea anemones to spiders' silks and insect cuticles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Although the theories are examined in depth, Gosline's elegant discussion makes them accessible to anyone with an interest in the mechanics of life. Focusing on the materials from which animals are constructed, this book answers fundamental questions about mechanical properties in nature.

Design in Nature

Design in Nature PDF Author: Adrian Bejan
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307744345
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the constructal law, accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world. Everything—from biological life to inanimate systems—generates shape and structure and evolves in a sequence of ever-improving designs in order to facilitate flow. River basins, cardiovascular systems, and bolts of lightning are very efficient flow systems to move a current—of water, blood, or electricity. Likewise, the more complex architecture of animals evolve to cover greater distance per unit of useful energy, or increase their flow across the land. Such designs also appear in human organizations, like the hierarchical “flowcharts” or reporting structures in corporations and political bodies. All are governed by the same principle, known as the constructal law, and configure and reconfigure themselves over time to flow more efficiently. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrificing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.

Introductory Biomechanics

Introductory Biomechanics PDF Author: C. Ross Ethier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139461826
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
Introductory Biomechanics is a new, integrated text written specifically for engineering students. It provides a broad overview of this important branch of the rapidly growing field of bioengineering. A wide selection of topics is presented, ranging from the mechanics of single cells to the dynamics of human movement. No prior biological knowledge is assumed and in each chapter, the relevant anatomy and physiology are first described. The biological system is then analyzed from a mechanical viewpoint by reducing it to its essential elements, using the laws of mechanics and then tying mechanical insights back to biological function. This integrated approach provides students with a deeper understanding of both the mechanics and the biology than from qualitative study alone. The text is supported by a wealth of illustrations, tables and examples, a large selection of suitable problems and hundreds of current references, making it an essential textbook for any biomechanics course.

Conceptual Change in Biology

Conceptual Change in Biology PDF Author: Alan C. Love
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 940179412X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
This volume explores questions about conceptual change from both scientific and philosophical viewpoints by analyzing the recent history of evolutionary developmental biology. It features revised papers that originated from the workshop "Conceptual Change in Biological Science: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, 1981-2011" held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin in July 2010. The Preface has been written by Ron Amundson. In these papers, philosophers and biologists compare and contrast key concepts in evolutionary developmental biology and their development since the original, seminal Dahlem conference on evolution and development held in Berlin in 1981. Many of the original scientific participants from the 1981 conference are also contributors to this new volume and, in conjunction with other expert biologists and philosophers specializing on these topics, provide an authoritative, comprehensive view on the subject. Taken together, the papers supply novel perspectives on how and why the conceptual landscape has shifted and stabilized in particular ways, yielding insights into the dynamic epistemic changes that have occurred over the past three decades. This volume will appeal to philosophers of biology studying conceptual change, evolutionary developmental biologists focused on comprehending the genesis of their field and evaluating its future directions, and historians of biology examining this period when the intersection of ev olution and development rose again to prominence in biological science.

Ecological Mechanics

Ecological Mechanics PDF Author: Mark Denny
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691163154
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
An in-depth exploration of how biomechanics and ecology work together Plants and animals interact with each other and their surroundings, and these interactions—with all their complexity and contingency—control where species can survive and reproduce. In this comprehensive and groundbreaking introduction to the emerging field of ecological mechanics, Mark Denny explains how the principles of physics and engineering can be used to understand the intricacies of these remarkable relationships. Denny opens with a brief review of basic physics before introducing the fundamentals of diffusion, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, and heat transfer, taking care to explain each in the context of living organisms. Why are corals of different shapes on different parts of a reef? How can geckos climb sheer walls? Why can birds and fish migrate farther than mammals? How do desert plants stay cool? The answers to these and a host of similar questions illustrate the principles of heat, mass, and momentum transport and set the stage for the book's central topic—the application of these principles in ecology. Denny shows how variations in the environment—in both space and time—affect the performance of plants and animals. He introduces spectral analysis, a mathematical tool for quantifying the patterns in which environments vary, and uses it to analyze such subjects as the spread of invasive species. Synthesizing the book’s materials, the final chapters use ecological mechanics to predict the occurrence and consequences of extreme ecological events, explain the emergence of patterns in the distribution and abundance of organisms, and empower readers to explore further. Ecological Mechanics offers new insights into the physical workings of organisms and their environment.

Symbiotic Multi-Robot Organisms

Symbiotic Multi-Robot Organisms PDF Author: Paul Levi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642116922
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
This book examines the evolution of self-organised multicellular structures, and the remarkable transition from unicellular to multicellular life. It shows the way forward in developing new robotic entities that are versatile, cooperative and self-configuring.

Plant Biomechanics

Plant Biomechanics PDF Author: Karl J. Niklas
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226586304
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 634

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Book Description
In this book, the author analyzes plant form and how it has evolved in response to basic physical laws. He examines the ways these laws limit the organic expression of form, size, and growth in a variety of plant structures and in plants as whole organisms, drawing on both the fossil record and studies of extant species.