Optimisation Mechanics in Nature

This book comprises a study of the two great organic solids in Nature, namely wood and bone. The common scientific laws which act in parallel for both natural and man-made materials are detailed here as wood and bone are studied in their natural structural environment as well as in the fields of engineering structural analysis and medical analysis. The relationship between them enables wood to be used in engineering structures and man-made materials to be used as scaffolding for tissue restoration in the human environment. The 'two-way traffic' relationship explored in this volume is termed biomimesis, a modern development of the ancient Greek concept of mimesis - the man-made imitation of nature.