Some years ago, I started a blog called Harmonic Structures, to explain structural concepts in a funny and intriguing way. This is one of the posts I published back then, on 11/18/2009
Wood is a fascinating material. It’s a natural “alive” material (which is not totally true, but we’ll leave that for another post), and that makes it specially appealing.
The first wonderful thing, its designer: Mother Nature. It’s been slowly designed, proved and redesigned for millenniums. Plenty of time to develop it!
And that’s the point… if you really had time to make something, wouldn’t that something be quite close to perfection?
Wood is thus perfect for its missions: aliment and support. Sap must reach every single cell, and the tree must stand up proud and strong as well (nothin’ to do with the oak of the previous post!).
Wood fulfills both purposes up to grade. We’ll have time to see how its structural mission is carried out But that’s another story and shall be told another time.
The next time you rest under a tree, think: it’s not only a shadow more. Wonder at the wonder wood.
Jose M. Cabrero 
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