Ever since the genesis of life, and throughout the course its further evolution, Nature has constantly been called upon to act as an engineer in solving technical problems. Organisms have evolved a variety of well-defined shapes and structures. Although often intricate and fragile, they can nonetheless deal with extreme mechanical loads. Some organisms live attached to a substrate; others can also move, fly, swim and dive. These abilities and many more are based on a variety of ingenious structural solutions. Understanding these is of major scientific interest, since it can give insights into...

Ever since the genesis of life, and throughout the course its further evolution, Nature has constantly been called upon to act as an engineer in solving technical problems. Organisms have evolved a variety of well-defined shapes and structures. Although often intricate and fragile, they can nonetheless deal with extreme mechanical loads. Some organisms live attached to a substrate; others can also move, fly, swim and dive. These abilities and many more are based on a variety of ingenious structural solutions. Understanding these is of major scientific interest, since it can give insights into...