Commentary
Work on biotensegrity started in the mid-1970s, when I was a young orthopedic surgeon trying to understand just what I was doing as a 'body mechanic'. Medical education and, even more particularly, surgical training, is probably the most anti-intellectual training experience outside of military combat training. Like combat situations, life and limb are at stake and there is no room for learning from your mistakes, but only from the mistakes of others. You are overloaded with facts, given little time to think, too much to do, and little time to do it in. Original thought and experimentation is discouraged and usually punished rather than rewarded. It is only afterward, after all exams are completed, can you begin to think for yourself. The wonder of it is that any of us do. Now that I am retired from clinical practice, I have time to do some thinking, I hope it is not too late.
Lecture Notes
These are a few slides modified from the introductory lecture on Biotensegrity. The full talk runs about one hour. The lecture covers challenging the premise of lever mechanics in biology, and how biotensegrity meshes with evolution, energy conservation, foam mechanics, space filling, minimal surfaces, chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics, all intrinsic to mechanics of biologic organisms.
Muscles at Rest
Biology will always take the easiest (least energy) way to perform a task, and all we have to do is compare which of our concepts of bodily functions is least energy requiring and that will be the most likely path of evolution.
The Joint as an Inclined plane: The Slippery Slope
Joint surfaces are slicker than ice sliding on ice.
Ring Around a Rosie: on the Force of Gravity That Pulls Us to the Center of the Earth
Muscles can only pull you down, never can they pull you 'up'! A technical note to accompany the presentation on the Biotensegrity DVD