Introducing the Language of “Relativity” for New Scaffold Categorization

Abstract

Research related with scaffold engineering tends to be cross-domain and miscellaneous. Several realms may need to be focused simultaneously, including biomedicine for cell culture and 3D scaffold, physics for dynamics, manufacturing for technologies like 3D printing, chemistry for material composition, as well as architecture for scaffold’s geometric control. As a result, researchers with different backgrounds sometimes could have different understanding towards the product described as ‘Scaffold’. After reviewing the literature, numerous studies termed their developed scaffold as ‘novel’, compared with scaffolds previously designed by others using comparing criterion like ‘research time’, ‘manufacturing method’, ‘geometry’, and so on. While it may have been convenient a decade ago to, for example, categorize scaffold with ‘Dualistic Thinking’ logic into ‘simple-complicated’ or ‘traditional-novel’, this method for categorizing ‘novelty’ and distinguishing scaffold is insufficiently persuasive and precise when it comes to modern or future scaffold. From this departure of philosophical language, namely the language of ‘relativity’, it is important to distinguish between different scaffolds. Other than attempting to avoid ambiguity in perceiving scaffold, this language also provides clarity regarding the ‘evolution stage’ where the focused scaffolds currently stand, where they have been developed, and where in future they could possibly evolve.