我受索志刚博士的邀请写了一篇关于“细胞与分子力学”的短文。我非正式地写这篇文章是为了介绍这个主题,而不是用诸如机械传导、磷酸化等方言来谈论。如果有人对这个主题领域更详细的讨论感兴趣,我有更正式的文件。这是一个我已经工作了十多年的领域,我发现它每天都更令人兴奋。问题总是力学是如何影响生物过程的。这是一个非常跨学科的课题,机械学家、工程师、物理学家、化学家和生物学家一直在从不同的角度研究这一过程。我显然不是第一个研究这个过程的人。对我们大多数人来说,从经验的角度来看,力学对生物学很重要,但力学究竟是如何具体地改变生物化学的,至今仍有很大的争议。当然力学在很多生理领域都很重要。你的血液流动,你的心脏跳动,你的骨骼和肌肉感觉力学。 Not only does the body experience mechanical stimulation, but it reacts biochemically to it. A wonderful example is when people go into space (NASA) for long periods of time. The bone in one’s body begins to resorb in a similar response mode to what one experiences in aging (osteoporosis). This is primarily due to just the change in the gravity (mechanics). Other diseases are related to these issues including the two biggest killers: heart disease and cancer. While biomechanics on this scale has been studied for awhile (Leonardo Da Vinci, who was interested in mechanics, also wrote one of the first texts on anatomy), the movement to the cellular and molecular scales has brought a tremendous amount of excitement. I consider the cell as one of the ultimate smart materials exhibiting these characteristics. The cell has evolved over millions of years and is designed better than almost any system that we can personally build. Just as the biological eye provides a beautiful template for optics based lenses, much can be learned about building technology (“nanotechnology” and “microtechnology”) through examining the behavior of cells and molecules.
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