The Acme of Engineering
Sam Adhikari
Oct. 12, 2008

Engineering started thousands of years ago when human beings found better ways of living through the use of contemporary technologies. Life as we know started billions of years ago. Life is the most advanced piece of machinery. Maintaining life is the acme of engineering. The most sophisticated engineering involves curing diseases with precision.

Engineering is based on mathematical models capable of creating machines, devices, bridges, processes, and infrastructures that can stand predictable, and sometimes unpredictable calamities. A car designed for safety, virtually guarantees the protection of the driver, and the passengers in case of a crash. Engineering design of the car also helps restore it back to shape, if recoverable, after the crash. Engineering is not fire fighting after the fire starts and rages its powers. Engineering starts quite early in predicting the conditions under which a fire can start. It also provides the specific procedures required to contain the fire based on its course.

In the absence of engineering, everything becomes a trial and error process. Thousands of years back, Roman civilization showed the first evidence of engineering when it could create plumbing based water channels to supply its cities with fresh water and to dispose the sewage. It was a paragon in civil engineering without the use of electricity.

Human cell are the most sophisticated and complicated machines. Billion of years ago a single cell reproduced and mutated into complex life forms. The most important terrestrial life form – the human beings, is also the most advanced and complex machine. The Human body comprises of electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering. Billions of cells communicate with each other to maintain thousands of biochemical processes.

In recent days, engineers have decided to model the human body and approach curing of disease with mathematical modeling. It is the process of predicting a disease before it happens. Also, when it happens, engineers are able to pin point the drug delivery systems to cure the disease and bring comfort to the patient. In the absence of engineering, the medical doctors do exactly what primitive human beings used to do; thousands of years back to make both ends meet – the process of trial and error. With the help of engineering, drugs are designed for optimal efficacy. They are targeted to the right cells at the right time. Even stem cells from ones bone marrow can be used to create healthy cells for a specific part of the body. The results are astounding.

An ideal example is breast cancer. It takes one cell to go wrong to start the cancer process. Unfortunately, it takes seven years before the cancerous growth is detected. After that it is just fire fighting with a water hose. Engineers are now able to model human bodies mathematically to predict breast cancer in an individual. Contemporary technologies will soon allow delivery of preventive drugs targeted to certain specific cells before cancer can go into metastases, which is equivalent to the wild fires. If cancer cells can be neutralized at their inception than million of lives can be saved.

Targeted drug delivery, mathematical modeling of biochemical pathways in human bodies, and analysis of cell dynamics are the basis of biomedical engineering. It is helping in providing defense against diabetes, multiple scoliosis, Alzheimer disease, and more. The bioengineering principles model human bodies with the precision of mathematics, predict abnormal behaviors, and provide cures. Medical doctors now use bioengineering techniques to cure patients and provide fast relief to them.

Interestingly, many medical schools have decided that from year 2012, they will admit primarily biomedical engineering undergraduates in their MD program. That manifests the success of bioengineering in curing diseases. Still the technology is in its infancy, but better days are ahead of us when we can maintain our bodies with precision, and sophistication of engineering. Perhaps, engineering is aiming the acme of its accomplishments.

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