دانلود کتاب ماده نرم در گیاهان از بیوفیزیک تا بیومیمتیک

Vascular plants have inhabited Earth’s surface for about 400 million years. They lead the evolutionary race by all accounts,1 and their importance to the terrestrial ecosystem, geology, and human civilization requires no emphasis. Yet, plants remain mysterious when observed from the vantage point of a physicist or an engineer. How do organisms made from just a few soft polymers, minerals, and water perform such striking physical and chemical feats? The remarkable relationship between structure, deformation, flow, and function in plants is the topic of this book. A myriad of reasons has been put forward to justify the scientific study of mechanics and fluid flow in plants. In most instances, they fall within the four categories proposed by T. J. Pedley:2 (1) physiology and ecology: understanding how plants work and interact with other living organisms and the environment; (2) stress: understanding how strong fluctuations impact plants; (3) pathology: discerning the origins and development of diseases; (4) bioengineering: exploring synthetic changes to the plant genome. It is evident that scientists working in these diverse research fields will be motivated by different research questions and applications of their work. However, the essential fluid and solid mechanical principles are clearly the same for all. Exploring the physics of both equilibrium and extreme cases as they relate to the mechanical integrity and transport capacity of plants is therefore worthwhile.