What do we mean by biomechanics?
We define biomechanics very broadly to mean the mechanical characteristics of biological systems (for example, the force generated by biological motors, the strength of biological structures, or the permeability of biological membranes) and also the molecular phenomena that underlie these characteristics (bioenergetics, molecular motors, and fluid movement in biological systems).
This area involves the study of the phenotypic characteristics of organisms; it is situated at a higher level of biological organization than the genome that has been so extensively studied in the last 40 years. It studies physical phenomena (capillarity, the properties of ionic solutions and of ionic gradients, molecular motors, membranes, and mechanical work) that fall among some of the areas of soft physics and chemistry, and of biophysics/chemistry, that are most interesting intellectually and to students.
Students concerned with biomechanics must take a systems view of biology. That is, they must think of biological systems not in terms of isolated, disaggregated genes and proteins, but in terms of the ensemble behaviors of their molecular components, of their meso\macroscopic biological characteristics and functions, and of the forces, materials, and fluxes that give them their dynamic properties. Biology can offer limitless interesting behaviors in this area; the physical sciences have a sophisticated understanding of many of the most important underlying phenomena.
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