More Planck.

Last post introduced that possibly "orientation", "shape", and"arrangement" of bone at the microscopic level might significantly impact FR. A closer reading of Planck, which follows, will be enormously helpful in explaining these concepts.

Above, bone tissue imaged at 200 nm from the Hansma website. Electron microscopy on Hansma seems to range image size from 500 nm to 50 nm. Thus the image above is quite small. It shows fractured mineralized collagen fibrils , hence the spacing and bone glue tearing apart. But the purpose here is only to show the actual appearance of the mineralized fibril as this "appearance" is important in understanding Planck.

Keep in mind that Type 1 bone collagen undergoes a maturation process from birth when it is purely collagen to death where it literally leaves behind a whitened shell of mineral matrix. The cell mineralizes completely over its lifetime. In the image notice the mineralized outer surface of the coated fibrils which appear to be of a rough grainy texture(left click to enlarge!).

Planck begins by stating it's goals, which are to examine bone material beginning with its the smallest microscopic components which are collagen molecules on up the much larger material which are groups of parallel collagen fibrils and also they will analyze all everything in between. They evolve the discussion step by step from the smallest to the largest to be examined, i.e. there's an unusual thoroughness here. They aim initially to discover the nature, character, evolution and behavior of these microscopic components and thereafter look at the "elastic properties" with an eye to understanding how material at this level affects bone strength and fracture resistance (FR).

The Abstract of the article states this as follows: "In this project we model the elastic properties of bone at the level of mineralized collagen fibrils via step-by-step homogenization from the staggered arrangement of collagen molecules up to an array of parallel mineralized fibrils."

There are two fascinating points in this article for our equines:
1. This provides indeed some very late research concerning bone at the microscopic level, and
2. They are looking at mineralization and the effect of mineralization on the elastic property (or strength) of bone tissue essentially as partners in crime with yours truly.

Onward, next post.

Training: nice riderless workouts for the conditions. We miss only two days due to very cold.
Sat. 12/12: Both horses were driven riderless for 10 min on partially frozen encrusted slippery mud and snow. But they seem to handle it well and we proceeded to run off about 4 consecutive half miles as fast as conditions allowed which probably was in :14s. We stopped this one a little short of a full workout as I deemed our fat one--Rod--had had enough. I want to maintain his enthusiasm although I hate to penalize the other horse.
Fri. 12/11: Perfect snow conditions for running. It's soft instead of crusty as a slight warm up from 5 degrees is at hand. Horses are driven riderless for 10 min. intermittently in play fashion. They're into it and run off several 2f spurts in :14s.
Wed. and Thurs. 12/9 and 10: Off due to weather.