Nature Materials is a multidisciplinary journal aimed at bringing together cutting-edge research across the entire spectrum of materials science and technology. Nature Materials covers all applied ...

This article was originally published with the title “ The Nature of Polymeric Materials ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 217 No. 3 (September 1967), p. 148 doi:10.1038 ...

Arranged in three parts, it begins with a review of the mechanical properties of nature's building blocks (structural proteins, polysaccharides and minerals) and the mechanics of cellular materials.