Bones at the nanoscale

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The hierarchical structure of bone gives rise to a hierarchical deformation via a staggered load transfer mechanism at the nanoscale. The yellow cylinders denote the mineralized collagen fibrils in longitudinal section and the red tablets denote the ...
The hierarchical structure of bone gives rise to a hierarchical deformation via a staggered load transfer mechanism at the nanoscale. The yellow cylinders denote the mineralized collagen fibrils in longitudinal section, and the red tablets denote the mineral apatite crystallites embedded within the collageneous matrix of the fibrils. The strain decreases from the tissue (left) to mineral particle level (right) in a ratio of approximately 12:5:2. Credits: Himadri Gupta/Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.

Scientists from Max Planck Institute (Germany) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have just discovered the way deformation at the nanoscale takes place in a bone by studying it with the synchrotron X-rays. This study explains the enor-mous stability and deformability of bones. The hierarchical structure of bones makes them able to sustain large strains without breaking, de-spite being made of essentially rigid units at the molecular level. The re-sults are published this week in the PNAS online edition.


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