Friday, May 6, 2016

What the Heck is Bioengineering Anyways?



One of the worst questions a parent can ask a kid when they come back from college is “So where did my money go?” That question is easy to answer for any other discipline; the biologists play with mice and the chemists…well chemicals. Kind of makes you wonder what was left over for course 20.


A man can dream…..

In the previous modules, it was easy to see. Bioengineers exploit biology to engineer new tools. We used some fusion proteins to sense calcium and an engineered plasmid to detect NHEJ. Batteries aren’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “biology.” I guess it’s not all about the biology, but exploiting biology as a tool (Yay engineering!) to make anything better.


Sorry Simba, bioengineering won’t help you here


 Honestly, at first I thought putting viruses in batteries was crazy. I mean I never made a battery before without viruses in it. We had a hard time making our cathode and had to end up stealing phage nanowires from another group. Things don’t usually work/go according to plan, this is science after all.

Sounds about right


 Despite being pretty challenging to make, they all worked. I was so proud of that small disk of metal. It was something that I made, something that I engineered. I imagine that’s what having a kid is like. You know, minus all the things that make kids annoying.

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