Biotensegrity: The Structural Basis of Life

Description

The concept of tensegrity as a structural design principle has been around since the middle of the twentieth century and is currently seeing a huge increase in interest. From early forays into a new form of sculpture it is now incorporated into architecture and the engineering of deployable structures in space, and is also attracting the attention of biologists, clinicians and others interested in functional anatomy and movement. Tensegrity models emulate biology in ways that were inconceivable in the past, and the principles underlying their construction provide a more thorough assessment of biological mechanics at every size scale. This book is a response to the frequently asked question, “what is (bio)tensegrity”, and will inspire the reader to take a deeper look at biological structure and find their own ways of applying it. It is a perspective that recognises that all natural forms are the result of interactions between natural physical forces and the fundamental laws that regulate them, and that an appreciation of these simple precepts leads to a better understanding of the human body as a functionally integrated and hierarchical unit. ‘Biotensegrity – the structural basis of life’ presents a detailed and overall picture of tensegrity/biotensegrity and brings everything together for the first time, from its discovery and basic geometry to its significance to functional anatomy and biomechanical theory, and is a much needed reference; it is part of the basic science that underpins clinical reasoning.