Tissue Mechanics

I was delighted when I learned in the fall of 2005 that Steve Cowin was working on a textbook in biomechanics. Steve and I were in the same department at Tulane University in the 1970s, and under his influence I learned the beauty and power of continuum mechanics as a means to better understand the musculoskeletal system. When I began teaching courses in biomechanics during that decade, it was natural to teach the material from a continuum mechanics persp- tive. Over the years I have used a variety of continuum mechanics texts, but, for the most part, I have had to find the biomedical examples I used directly from the research literature. I have now had a chance to review a draft of Tissue Mechanics by Cowin and Doty, and it exceeds my high expectations. The material includes a rigorous and comprehensive introd- tion to continuum mechanics oriented toward biomechanics. Indeed, all of the foundation t- ics for continuum models of biological materials are covered. This material is illustrated through applications to the hard and soft tissues of the human body. Steve Cowin is now one of the leading researchers in the mechanics of bone, so one would expect the chapters on bone tissue and bone tissue adaptation to be of a very high order. But the presentation on collagen and cartilage mechanics is also excellent. Their presentation of finite deformation mechanics and its application to tendons and ligaments is one of the most accessible in the literature.