{"id":12778,"date":"2024-01-31T12:33:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T20:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/?p=12778"},"modified":"2024-01-31T12:33:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T20:33:28","slug":"physicists-discover-inherent-property-of-biological-materials-that-explains-mechanical-efficiency-of-tendons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/2024\/01\/31\/physicists-discover-inherent-property-of-biological-materials-that-explains-mechanical-efficiency-of-tendons\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicists Discover Inherent Property of Biological Materials that Explains Mechanical Efficiency of Tendons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">91̽»¨ physics professor Mark Ilton and four of his students are celebrating the publication of their work in the <em>Journal of the Royal Society Interface<\/em>, which publishes\u00a0articles of high-quality research at the intersection of the physical and life sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lead author Lucien Tsai \u201924 along with Ilton and co-authors Paco Navarro \u201925, Ingrid Wu \u201923 and Taylor Levinson \u201925 performed summer research in Ilton\u2019s Physics of Soft Matter (PoSM) Lab that resulted in their paper, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rsif.2023.0527\">Viscoelastic materials are most energy efficient when loaded and unloaded at equal rates<\/a>.\u201d As the paper\u2019s self-explanatory title suggests, the research describes the results of the group\u2019s investigation of the mechanical energy efficiency of biological springs (e.g. tendons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBy understanding the properties of these materials,\u201d Tsai says, \u201cwe can extract principles for the design of bio-inspired spring-driven mechanisms. This study examines how the differences between the loading and unloading rates of these springs shape their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings, obtained through innovative mechanical experiments, and, in collaboration with biologists from the University of California, Irvine, unveil a crucial connection: symmetric rates, characterized by equal loading and unloading durations, offer superior mechanical efficiency. \u201cUsing a mathematical model, we find that an inherent property of biological materials is responsible for this rate-dependent effect: their hierarchical structure that imparts a broad range of relaxation times results in an efficient response to symmetric rates,\u201d says Tsai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ilton says Tsai, who worked on the project since its inception in 2021, helped steer the research in a different direction than Ilton had expected. \u201cMy original suggestion about how to model the tendon&#8217;s response to different loading and unloading rates was completely inadequate,\u201d Ilton says. \u201cI suggested a simplified model with a single characteristic time in the material. It was Lucien who had the idea to take a different&nbsp;approach, and he included a range of characteristic times in his model of the tendons. It was this insight that led us to one of the paper&#8217;s main findings: the reason why tendons are so mechanically efficient when you load and unload them at the same rate is because they have a broad range of characteristic times in their material relaxation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHaving your first paper published is an exciting moment!\u201d says Ilton of his students. \u201cThe students discovered something new, which can be a really&nbsp;addictive experience. Not only does this paper help the students establish their track record as scientists,&nbsp;but they also&nbsp;experienced a rigorous peer review process. I think that having to address&nbsp;critique&nbsp;of your work in a positive way builds skill and character, which is something that translates well into life more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This project was made possible by donors to the College\u2019s Physics Summer Research Fund and a grant from the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>91̽»¨ physics professor Mark Ilton and four of his students are celebrating the publication of their work in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":12666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,967,213,24,26,30],"class_list":["post-12778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-general-feed","category-grant","category-physics","category-research","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12779,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12778\/revisions\/12779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}