Biological materials are bottom-up designed systems formed from billions of years of natural evolution. In the long course of Darwinian competition for survival, nature has evolved a huge variety of hierarchical and multifunctional systems from nucleic acids, proteins, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, animal communities to ecological s- tems. Multilevel hierarchy a rule of nature. The complexities of biology provide an opportunity to study the basic principles of hierarchical and multifunctional s- tems design, a subject of potential interest not only to biomedical and life sciences, but...

This volume contains the edited version of lectures and selected research contributions presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on MECHANICAL BEHA VI OUR OF MATERIALS AT HIGH TEMPERATURE, held in Sesimbra, Portugal, 12th-22nd September 1995, and organized by 1ST-Lisbon Institute of Technology, PortugaL The Institute was attended by 88 participants, including 15 lecturers from 17 countries including five CP countries. The lecturers were leading scientists and technologists from universities, research institutions and industry. The students were mainly young PhD students and junior...