The emerging science of biotensegrity provides a fresh context for rethinking our understanding of human movement, but its complexities can be formidable. Biotensegrity: The Structural Basis of Life, Second edition - now with full color illustrations throughout - explores and explains the concept of biotensegrity and provides an understanding and appreciation of anatomy and physiology in the light of the latest research findings. The reader learns that biotensegrity is an evolving science which gives researchers, teachers, and practitioners across a wide range of specialisms, including bodyworkers and movement teachers, a deeper understanding of the structure and function of the human body. They are then able to develop clinical practice and skills in light of this understanding, leading to more effective therapeutic approaches, with the aim of improved client outcomes. The second edition provides expanded coverage of the developmental and therapeutic aspects of biotensegrity. Coverage now includes: A more thorough look at life's internal processes Closed kinematic chains as the new biomechanics Embryological development as an evolutionary process The human body as a constantly evolving system based on a set of unchanging principles Emergence, heterarchies, soft-matter and small-world networks A deeper look at what constitutes the therapeutic process
Graham Scarr is a chartered biologist and osteopath with a particular interest in structural mechanics. Fascinated by the numerous examples of geometric patterns and shapes in nature, he has been researching their significance over many years. As a graduate in microbiology, and after spending several years developing his skills in a bacteriological research lab, he is now part of a specific interest group looking at the significance of the biotensegrity concept to biomechanics and clinical practice, and at the forefront of current thinking about this subject. Working closely with Stephen Levin, an orthopaedic surgeon who first recognized the importance of biotensegrity to living organisms, he has developed new models that progress our understanding of the structure-function relationship in biology. Graham Scarr is currently a Fellow of the Linnean Society and Member of the Society of Biology; he has published several papers on this subject in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Chapter 1 * Tensegrity Chapter 2 * Simple geometry in complex organisms Chapter 3 * The balance of unseen forces Chapter 4 * The problem with mechanics Chapter 5 * The autonomous cell Chapter 6 * The twist in the tale Chapter 7 * The ease of motion Chapter 8 * The 'hard' and the 'soft' Chapter 9 * A closer look Chapter 10 * 'Complex' patterns in biology Chapter 11 * Biotensegrity: a rational approach to biomechanics Chapter 12 * Biotensegrity: the structural basis of life Appendix 1 * Tensegrity models Appendix 2 * Muscle volume and crossed helical fiber angle Appendix 3 * The questionable hydrostat Appendix 4 * The avian lung Appendix 5 * Closed-chain kinematics and embryological development
