For the health world, this field, traditionally used to study how the body moves, can provide insight into how the heart beats, which can help to understand heritable heart disorders. It can also be used to measure bone strength further enabling understanding of the effect of age, and help prevent children's spinal injuries. Additionally through biomechanics, such new materials and treatments are discovered that can help the medical profession with developing new and better options for surgical implants and stronger materials.
By contributing so much to advances in health practices, biomechanics is playing a huge role in bettering lives. "We are opening the eyes of researchers on both sides of the field to the breadth of exciting advances, novel tools and techniques, and grand challenges facing their counterparts across the mechanics and biology divide" says Dr. Eric Brown, head researcher of the study.
This study is published in Experimental Techniques. Media wishing to receive a PDF of the study please contact: professionalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.
Eric N. Brown Ph.D. is the Chair of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Biological Materials and a technical staff member in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also an ARO Panel Member for the Future of Self-Healing Materials and reviewer for Experimental Mechanics. Media wishing to contact Dr. Brown for interview or more information may e-mail him at en_brown@lanl.gov or call him at 505-667-0799. M.L. Peterson (University of Maine) and K.J. Grande-Allen (Rice University) are both co-authors of the article.
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Experimental Techniques