section_path: Areas of research/Biomechanics
section_name: Biomechanics
paragraph_text: Biomechanics
  
  Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Biomechanics also aids in creating prosthetic limbs and artificial organs for humans. Biomechanics is closely related to engineering, because it often uses traditional engineering sciences to analyze biological systems. Some simple applications of Newtonian mechanics and/or materials sciences can supply correct approximations to the mechanics of many biological systems.
  
  In the past decade, reverse engineering of materials found in nature such as bone matter has gained funding in academia. The structure of bone matter is optimized for its purpose of bearing a large amount of compressive stress per unit weight. The goal is to replace crude steel with bio-material for structural design.
  
  Over the past decade the Finite element method (FEM) has also entered the Biomedical sector highlighting further engineering aspects of Biomechanics. FEM has since then established itself as an alternative to in vivo surgical assessment and gained the wide acceptance of academia. The main advantage of Computational Biomechanics lies in its ability to determine the endo-anatomical response of an anatomy, without being subject to ethical restrictions. This has led FE modelling to the point of becoming ubiquitous in several fields of Biomechanics while several projects have even adopted an open source philosophy (e.g. BioSpine).