Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials.
Michael LaBarbera, American Scientist.
This elegant comparison of human and biological technology will forever change the way you look at each.
In this marvelously surprising, witty book, Steven Vogel compares these two Mechanical worlds, introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine the designs of both People and nature.
Our hinges turn because hard parts slide around each other, whereas nature\'s hinges (a rabbit\'s ear, for example) more often swing by bending flexible materials.
Our technology goes around on wheels and on rotating pulleys, gears, shafts, and cams yet in Nature only the tiny propellers of bacteria spin as true wheels.
Why, then, do their designs diverge so sharply? Humans, for instance, love right angles, while nature\'s angles are rarely right and usually rounded.
Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials and use them in the same air and water, pulled by the same gravity.
Illustrations.
Why do their designs diverge so sharply? Vogel compares these two Worlds and introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, explaining how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determines the designs of both People and nature.
Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials
