Skeleton key

When it comes to lightweight engineering materials, technology is still trying to catch up with nature.

Although bone has a low density which reduces the material's weight, its cellular honeycomb structure is able to withstand huge loads and stresses. Human attempts to mimic this structure — in low-weight metal foams for example — haven't been able to replicate this performance.

The key to the success of bone, explained Andreas Burblies of the

for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials in

, is that not all of the pores are the same size. Saw a femur in half lengthways, for example, and you'll see that the pores in the head of the bone, which has to withstand stresses in several directions, are large, while the shaft of the bone, which mainly withstands stresses along its length only, are smaller.

Burblies and colleagues have used these structural forms to develop a computer simulation system. 'We can now simulate on the computer the sort of internal structure a component needs so it is optimally designed for a specific application,' he explained.