Electro-mechanical Factors Regulating Bone Architecture

Bone has been defined as a hard substance, a mineralized connective tissue, the structural material upon which muscles and ligaments are hung. From early child hood, when man becomes conscious of the meaning of a skeleton, he is aware of the permanence of bone. The surgeon saws it, drills it, screws it, nails it and otherwise treats it very much as he would a piece of oak or pine in his workshop. In fact, its desirable physical properties, such as hardness, elasticity and durability, have prompted men to employ bone in the construction of many diverse items. It has been used in the hunt, as arrowheads and corset stays, and in the pleasures of the parlor, as dice and toothpicks. Truly, bone is a most remarkable substance! Its enduring behavior as an inanimate material, however, is not matched by its conduct in the animate state, for living bone is changing bone.