9401518 Cowin The objective of this research is to study the mechanism whereby certain symmetry properties of the elasticity tensors develop in nature when there is no obvious reason for them to occur. This may reflect a response to cyclic loadings rather than simply static conditions. Two natural composites, bone and wood, have been shown to exhibit this behavior and the evaluation as to why this occurs may prove profitable for man-made composite design. This raises the question: has nature devised this particular mechanism for mitigating the damaging effects of repeated cyclic loadings in bone and trees? ***
