For the last few hundred years the bones of the skeleton have been considered to stack on top of one another like a pile of bricks and resist gravity through a complicated system of pulleys and levers. This is a building system common to man-made structures but it no longer fits with modern biology.
Tensegrity (tension-integrity) is a structural system recognised for its distinct compression elements that appear to float within a tensioned network. It is a most attractive proposition in living systems, because such structures automatically assume a position of stable equilibrium, with a configuration that minimizes their stored elastic energy. Tensegrity structures allow movement with the minimum of energy expenditure, without losing stiffness or stability. Comparisons with biological structures show them both to have non-linear visco-elastic properties, with fluid-like movements that result from the integration of all components in the system.
Bio-tensegrity is increasingly recognized as a better way to understand biology, because it integrates anatomy from the molecular level to the whole organism.
The BIOLOGY page gives lots of tensegrity examples.
The GEODESIC page describes the simple rules of geometry that underlie complex shapes and behaviours.
The DEFINITIONS page looks at terminology and a few brain teezers.
There are lots of REFERENCES and some PUBLICATIONS (cranial vault; simple geometry; helix; elbow).
Making your own MODELS is the best way of making sense of all this.
Consider these pages as my own exploration of tensegrity in biology as some of the
opinions and content differ from other writers; and let me know what you think. email
Some key authors are listed here with more on the reference page:
Stephen Levin has looked at whole-body biotensegrity more than anyone else. (link 1) (link 2)
Donald Ingber has done extensive research on tensegrity in the cytoskeleton. (link)
Ingber DE. 1997 The architecture of life. Scientific American. (link)
Buckminster Fullers' 1975 book Explorations in the geometry of thinking is now out of print but available to download. This is THE book on tensegrity but the style of writing is very exacting and can be heavy going with lots of his personal philosophy thrown in. Some of Fullers ideas might seem abstract but they are a springboard to further research of which there is plenty to do. (link)
Amy Edmondsons book A Fuller explanation is an excellent introduction to Fullers work. (link)
Kenneth Snelsons' site on tensegrity in sculpture is definitely worth a look. He was really the first to recognise tensegrity for what it is. (link)
Tensegrity wiki with lots of description, references and links to everything tensegrity. (link)
Tom Flemons has made some wonderful models with description that provides food for thought. (link)
Gomez Jauregui wrote his Masters thesis on the application of tensegrity to architecture and has lots of historical details and descriptions that are useful to appreciating biological tensegrity.(link)
Gerald de Jong writes software that shows how large tensegrity structures behave. (link) (link 2)
Tom Myers looks at the application of tensegrity to structural integration. (link)
Phil Earnhardt gives a nice presentation that pulls things together.(link)
Marcello Pars has some brilliant tensegrity sculptures that will make you want to play with sticks and bits of string. If this is all new to you Marcello's pages are the place to start. (link)
This webspace has been kindly provided by Chris Stapleton on Photon Web Hosting
Please note that all pictures are by Graham Scarr unless credited otherwise and some of them are copyright Elsevier Publishing. It may benefit you to check before using them for any purpose. E-mail