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Adaptation and optimality of biological structures.


The amazing rationality of biological ``constructions''  calls for the use  of structural optimization methods.
Consider, for example, a bone: It is a mechanical structure made of composites with variable parameters that adapts itself to its working conditions. It performs a clearly described mechanical task of supporting the organism. These features are similar to such man-made composite structures as masts, bridges, towers, and domes. Therefore, it would be natural to apply optimization methods developed for engineering constructions to bone structures, as it has been done in the papers by

However, the two problems are not the same.

Firstly, the natural "optimized designs" satisfy certain restrictions which arew not too easy to formalize:

Secondly, it is not clear what quantity is minimized in natural evolutionary biomaterials (we mean the explicit optimality criterion of a natural structure, not a general reference to the evolution that perfects organisms).
In engineering problems, the goal is the minimization of a given functional that is not the subject of a search or even a discussion. The problem is to find the structure that minimizes a functional prescribed by a designer.  Contraty to this, the structure of a bone is known, but it is not clear in what sense (if any) the bone structure is optimal.
Investigation of optimality of evolutionary objects leads to the search for a cost functional of an optimization problem with a known solution.
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