BIOMECHANICS AND GENE ACTIVITIES ------ CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL OF PROFESSOR CHOU PEIYUAN

All biological phenomena involving force and motion are in the realm of biomechanics. Mechanics people, from Galileo on to today, have used the principles of conservation of mass, momentum, and energy to make contributions to human well being. They have added to the scientific understanding of locomotion, circulation, respiration, renal and nervous functions, and artificial internal organs. In recent years, many people, working on tissue engineering, arteriosclerosis, and other health problems, have to focus on the problem of finding out how do living tissues change or remodel themselves under stress. They found that some of the classical conservation laws do notapply, and there is a problem of introducing new axioms to biomechanics. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss these new axioms, then go on to point out that the basic reason for these new axioms is the activity of the genes in our cells. Some of our genes work daily to control our lives. Their functions are not limited to genetics and mutation. This points to a new lead to new thoughts. A new science is waiting to be developed.