Consequences

Abstract

Chapters 2 to 6 of this book have been concerned with the substances from which animal and plant structures are made, how these substances are assembled into materials and what the properties of these materials might be. This is a very bald approach to the study of biomaterials: it does not connect the findings of biomechanics to the rest of biology. True, we know something of the biochemistry of the production of collagen, cellulose, chitin and the like; true, also, that we can show how the mechanical properties of most materials are related to the mechanical needs of the organism and so justify the measurement of those properties. But the tendency in the sciences has been for the basic ideas to be worked out on relatively simple systems, and when those ideas are applied to biological systems they have to be developed to a new order of complexity to cope with the complexity and subtlety of living things. Will the same be true of biomechanics? To such a leading question, the answer must be yes. There are many complexities to be investigated which current concepts of materials science find complex or impossible, although it should always be remembered that it is unlikely that the function of any material will be completely mechanical.