Andrew Biewener and Sheila Patek
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198743156
- eISBN:
- 9780191803031
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198743156.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology, Ecology
This book provides a synthesis of the physical, physiological, evolutionary, and biomechanical principles that underlie animal locomotion. An understanding and full appreciation of animal locomotion ...
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This book provides a synthesis of the physical, physiological, evolutionary, and biomechanical principles that underlie animal locomotion. An understanding and full appreciation of animal locomotion requires the integration of these principles. Toward this end, we provide the necessary introductory foundation that will allow a more in-depth understanding of the physical biology and physiology of animal movement. In so doing, we hope that this book will illuminate the fundamentals and breadth of these systems, while inspiring our readers to look more deeply into the scientific literature and investigate new features of animal movement. Several themes run through this book. The first is that by comparing the modes and mechanisms by which animals have evolved the capacity for movement, we can understand the common principles that underlie each mode of locomotion. A second is that size matters. One of the most amazing aspects of biology is the enormous spatial and temporal scale over which organisms and biological processes operate. Within each mode of locomotion, animals have evolved designs and mechanisms that effectively contend with the physical properties and forces imposed on them by their environment. Understanding the constraints of scale that underlie locomotor mechanisms is essential to appreciating how these mechanisms have evolved and how they operate. A third theme is the importance of taking an integrative and comparative evolutionary approach in the study of biology. Organisms share much in common. Much of their molecular and cellular machinery is the same. They also must navigate similar physical properties of their environment. Consequently, an integrative approach to organismal function that spans multiple levels of biological organization provides a strong understanding of animal locomotion. By comparing across species, common principles of design emerge. Such comparisons also highlight how certain organisms may differ and point to strategies that have evolved for movement in diverse environments. Finally, because convergence upon common designs and the generation of new designs result from historical processes governed by natural selection, it is also important that we ask how and why these systems have evolved.Less
This book provides a synthesis of the physical, physiological, evolutionary, and biomechanical principles that underlie animal locomotion. An understanding and full appreciation of animal locomotion requires the integration of these principles. Toward this end, we provide the necessary introductory foundation that will allow a more in-depth understanding of the physical biology and physiology of animal movement. In so doing, we hope that this book will illuminate the fundamentals and breadth of these systems, while inspiring our readers to look more deeply into the scientific literature and investigate new features of animal movement. Several themes run through this book. The first is that by comparing the modes and mechanisms by which animals have evolved the capacity for movement, we can understand the common principles that underlie each mode of locomotion. A second is that size matters. One of the most amazing aspects of biology is the enormous spatial and temporal scale over which organisms and biological processes operate. Within each mode of locomotion, animals have evolved designs and mechanisms that effectively contend with the physical properties and forces imposed on them by their environment. Understanding the constraints of scale that underlie locomotor mechanisms is essential to appreciating how these mechanisms have evolved and how they operate. A third theme is the importance of taking an integrative and comparative evolutionary approach in the study of biology. Organisms share much in common. Much of their molecular and cellular machinery is the same. They also must navigate similar physical properties of their environment. Consequently, an integrative approach to organismal function that spans multiple levels of biological organization provides a strong understanding of animal locomotion. By comparing across species, common principles of design emerge. Such comparisons also highlight how certain organisms may differ and point to strategies that have evolved for movement in diverse environments. Finally, because convergence upon common designs and the generation of new designs result from historical processes governed by natural selection, it is also important that we ask how and why these systems have evolved.
W. Mark Saltzman
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195141306
- eISBN:
- 9780197561775
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195141306.003.0017
- Subject:
- Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry
The previous chapter provided some examples of tissue engineering, in which cells that were isolated and engineered outside of the body are introduced into ...
More
The previous chapter provided some examples of tissue engineering, in which cells that were isolated and engineered outside of the body are introduced into a patient by direct injection of a cell suspension, typically into the circulatory system. But the field of tissue engineering also points to treatments that are conceptually different from variations on cell transfusion technology; tissue engineering promises the regrowth of adult tissue structure through application of engineered cells and synthetic materials. In support of this broad claim, the field of tissue engineering can point to some initial successes. For example, synthetic materials are now available that accelerate healing of burns and skin ulcers. In addition, in vitro cell culture methods now allow the amplification of a patient’s own cells for cartilage repair or bone marrow transplantation. But major obstacles to the widespread application of tissue engineering remain. Tissue engineers have not yet learned how to reproduce complex tissue architectures, such as vascular networks, which are essential for the normal function of many tissues. In fact, the tissue engineering concepts that have been demonstrated in the laboratory to date involve arrangements of cells and materials into precursor tissues (or neotissues) that develop according to natural processes that are already present within the cells or the materials at the time of implantation. These methods may be suitable for production of some tissues in which either the structure is relatively homogeneous (such as cartilage, in which a tissue structure can reform after the implantation of chondrocytes into a tissue defect) or the structure develops naturally (such as in some tissue-engineered skin, in which the stratified epithelium develops naturally by culturing at an air–liquid interface). The engineering of many tissue structures—such as the branching architectures found in many tissues or the intricate network architecture of the nervous system—will probably require methods for introducing and changing molecular signals during the process of neo-tissue development. For example, it is well known that chemical gradients of factors known as morphogens induce the formation of structures during development; some of the attributes of morphogens were introduced in Chapter 3.
Less
The previous chapter provided some examples of tissue engineering, in which cells that were isolated and engineered outside of the body are introduced into a patient by direct injection of a cell suspension, typically into the circulatory system. But the field of tissue engineering also points to treatments that are conceptually different from variations on cell transfusion technology; tissue engineering promises the regrowth of adult tissue structure through application of engineered cells and synthetic materials. In support of this broad claim, the field of tissue engineering can point to some initial successes. For example, synthetic materials are now available that accelerate healing of burns and skin ulcers. In addition, in vitro cell culture methods now allow the amplification of a patient’s own cells for cartilage repair or bone marrow transplantation. But major obstacles to the widespread application of tissue engineering remain. Tissue engineers have not yet learned how to reproduce complex tissue architectures, such as vascular networks, which are essential for the normal function of many tissues. In fact, the tissue engineering concepts that have been demonstrated in the laboratory to date involve arrangements of cells and materials into precursor tissues (or neotissues) that develop according to natural processes that are already present within the cells or the materials at the time of implantation. These methods may be suitable for production of some tissues in which either the structure is relatively homogeneous (such as cartilage, in which a tissue structure can reform after the implantation of chondrocytes into a tissue defect) or the structure develops naturally (such as in some tissue-engineered skin, in which the stratified epithelium develops naturally by culturing at an air–liquid interface). The engineering of many tissue structures—such as the branching architectures found in many tissues or the intricate network architecture of the nervous system—will probably require methods for introducing and changing molecular signals during the process of neo-tissue development. For example, it is well known that chemical gradients of factors known as morphogens induce the formation of structures during development; some of the attributes of morphogens were introduced in Chapter 3.
