title: Structural motifs and elastic properties of hierarchical biological tissues - a review.
abstract: Recent progress made in the field of hierarchical biological materials is reviewed with an emphasis on the staggering characteristics at the smaller structural scale of a number of tissues. We show by means of selected examples that the small-scale architecture, and particularly the degree of staggering and overlap, plays a critical role in the macroscopic elastic behavior of those tissues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bar-On
authors.forename: H Daniel
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Wagner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D014070:Tooth / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Biological composites; Hierarchical tissues; Staggered architecture