Peter Forbes

Thanks for tweeting about your blog post, Peter. I keep tabs on tweets mentioning tensegrity; a surprising percentage are very high quality.

Buckminster Fuller talks about fractal tensegrity structures in section 740.20 of "Synergetics" (PDF of chapter on tensegrity available at http://rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/print/p700.pdf ). Fuller proposes that the struts and tendons of a larger tensegrity can be fabricated with smaller tensegrity masts. "Synergetics" was published in the mid-1970s; Mandelbrot's "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" was published in 1982. Fuller notes the material efficiency and energy efficiency of fractal tensegrity structures. As far as I can tell, these ideas were original and wholly under-appreciated. Fuller's student (and now Harvard professor) Amy Edmondson provides an accessible version of Bucky's ideas in her book "A Fuller Explanation". The book is available for reading in its entirety on Google Books: http://bit.ly/AFEonGB

Bucky also talks about the non-linear (i.e., non-hookean) stress-strain response of the tensegrity icosahedron in 724.30 through 724.34 of Synergetics. I posted a short video showing this behavior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1NsRlhxuwE . Fuller talks about the strength of the icosahedron increasing under stress. When you manipulate a high-tension model as I do in that video, you immediately note that the structure's rigidity increases on the same curve. Unfortunately, most of the rubber-band structures are too stretchy to show this behavior. I noted the tools needed to create high-tension models at http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/005878.php .

(Medical) Dr. Stephen Levin (biotensegrity.com) has the most complete understanding of musculoskeletal tensegrity. There are a variety of papers on his site available for download; the lecture on his DVD provides some wonderful original material. Dr. Graham Scarr has several excellent published papers about tensegrity in muscle tissue.

Structural Integration instructor Thomas Myers published the text "Anatomy Trains" in 2001; the 2e was published a 3 years ago. The book shows a way to map our muscles and tendons as long lines of tension. The first chapter of his book provides a broad introduction to fascial tissue. I am particularly fond of Myers's essay "Spatial Medicine" ( http://www.anatomytrains.com/explore/spatialmedicine/expanded ). Myers proposes a way to think of our biology as three interdependent fractal/pervasive networks. Through that model, he shows a way to think about what is happening during body/mind work. I find that essay (and the full discussion in the 2e of Anatomy Trains) the most influential pieces of writing I have ever read.

Finally, I recommend the papers of Professor Albert K Harris ( http://labs.bio.unc.edu/harris/references.htm ). Harris is an embryologist who has specialized in the mechanisms that cells use to move in the developing body. His 1980 paper "Silicone rubber substrata: a new wrinkle in the study of cell locomotion" is cited by Ingber in his papers. Ingber describes Harris's work on page 4 of his Scientific American article "The Architecture of Life". Harris does not study tensegrity directly, but he has a multidisciplinary common-sense approach to his research. I am most excited by his 1994 paper "Multicellular mechanisms in the creation of anatomical structures."