THE MATERIAL BONE - STRUCTURE MECHANICAL FUNCTION RELATIONS

The term bone refers to a family of materials, all of which are built up of mineralized collagen fibrils. They have highly complex structure s, described in terms of up to 7 hierarchical levels of organization. These materials have evolved to fulfill a variety of mechanical functi ons, for which the structures are presumably fine-tuned. Matching stru cture to function is a challenge. Here we review the structure-mechani cal relations at each of the hierarchical levels of organization, high lighting wherever possible both underlying strategies and gaps in our knowledge. The insights gained from the study of these fascinating mat erials are not only important biologically, but may well provide novel ideas that can be applied to the design of synthetic materials.