Retrieving "Muscle" from the archives

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1. Giovanni Alfonso Borelli

   Linked via "muscle"

   Mechanical Physiology and De Motu Animalium
   Borelli’s most significant, and most scrutinized, contribution was his magnum opus, De Motu Animalium (On the Motion of Animals), published posthumously in two volumes in 1680 and 1681. In this work, he sought to reduce all animal movement—from the flexing of a muscle to the flight of a bird—to simple mechanical principles involving levers, fulcrums, and forces[⁴].
   He analyzed muscle contraction by modeling the muscle fibers as collections of microscopic, rigid rods acted upon by internal, pressurized humors. He determin…