Humanual: A Manual for Being Human by Betsy Polatin

Author:Betsy Polatin [Polatin, Betsy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Waterside Productions
Published: 2020-06-09T04:00:00+00:00

7. BIOTENSEGRITY: CONNECTION IN EVERY CELL

Let’s explore this idea more deeply as another myth-breaker and a departure from classical thought. Not until fairly recently, i.e., the last several decades, did scientists observe that these very same tensegrity principles (of self-inclusive support) underlie the integrity of all biological structures. Our entire body, from genes to cells, to arms and legs, is organized and constructed through a balance of expanding and contracting forces.

Tensegrity pioneer Donald Ingber tells this story of his discovery of tensegrity and the body: “As my art professor spoke, he pushed this round tensegrity sculpture flat, and when he let go, it leapt up in the air. This was interesting because I had seen the same behavior just days before when I first learned how to culture cells, across the campus in a medical school laboratory. Cells flatten when they adhere to a culture dish; but when you detach them, they round up and jump off the dish just like the tensegrity toy.”43

Another pioneer in this field, orthopedic surgeon Stephen Levin, coined the term biotensegrity to describe the pervasive presence of tensegrity principles in biology. Dr. Levin observed that bones at joints do not touch each other and do not stack up bone to bone but instead seem to float at the joint.44

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