Bringing to life the fascinating structures and unique mechanics of natural and biomedical cellular materials, this book is an expert guide to the subject for graduates and researchers. Arranged in three parts, it begins with a review of the mechanical properties of nature's building blocks (structural proteins, polysaccharides and minerals) and the mechanics of cellular materials. Part II then describes a wide range of cellular materials in nature: honeycomb-like materials such as wood and cork; foam-like materials including trabecular bone, plant parenchyma, coral and sponge; and composites of cellular and dense materials such as iris leaves, skulls, palm, bamboo, animal quills and plant stems. Images convey the structural similarities of different materials, whilst color property charts provide mechanical data. Part III discusses biomedical applications of cellular materials: metal foams for orthopedic applications and porous scaffolds for regenerating tissues, including the effect of scaffold properties on cell behavior.
Lorna J. Gibson is the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, where she has been a faculty member since 1984. Her research interests focus on the mechanics of materials with a cellular structure such as honeycombs and foams and she is co-author, with Mike Ashby, of Cellular Solids: Structure and Properties (2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Michael F. Ashby is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he has been a faculty member since 1973. He is a member of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He has authored a number of books on materials, design and the environment and he has a lifelong interest in natural and cellular materials.
Brendan A. Harley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as a core faculty member of the Institute for Genomic Biology (Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering Theme). His research interests focus on fabricating homogenous and spatially-patterned cellular biomaterials for tissue engineering applications.