Engineering &…

(left to right) real cell, mold of real cell, artificial cell

Biomedical engineers at Brown University have created a plastic replication of cells using a two step molding process. The result: a copy so authentic that the trained eye could not distinguish a difference.

Relying on Schwann cells (those covering nerve fibers and comprising the mylin sheath) preserved in chemicals, researchers formed a mold using a silicon coating process. This mold was in turn filled with silicon to produce a copy of the original Schwann cell.

When examined under a microscope, the length and height of both cells were identical, as were the bumps of the nucleus. Researchers will continue to study these Schwann cells to better understand how they direct nerve growth, with the hopes they could be used to regenerate nerves severed during accident or injury.

Image courtsey of Brown University

The writers for the show CSI can now start looking to real life to help think up plot lines.

Up until just recently, forensic scientists have only been able to study the two-dimensional photos of bullets and casings taken from crime scenes. This method left ample room for error, as examiners could sometimes end up comparing striations from different sides of bullets if the images were oriented incorrectly.

Now, things are different. New ballistics-imaging technology, developed by Rockville, Maryland-based engineering firm Intelligent Automation, through funding from the Justice Department and the National Science Foundation, lets forensic scientists capture a fired bullet’s distinctive markings in 3-D for the first time. The new technology works by projecting white light through a special microscope onto a bullet or its casing. The depth of the marks determines the intensity of the reflected light, which is recorded by a camera.

Already, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, have used this 3-D technology to develop clones of a bullet that has been fired. These “golden bullets” allow crime labs to calibrate their imaging equipment to a single set of striations, making it easier to share data. Susan Ballou, a program manager at NIST comments:

You make reference materials for DNA — blood, hair. What about bullets?

Learn more about this new 3-D imaging technology in Luke O’Brien’s article in Wired Magazine.

Image courtesy of Intelligent Automation

Global warming, meet geoengineering, the deliberate modification of Earth’s environment on a large scale to suit human needs and promote habitability. While the field remains controversial due to its radical project proposals, such as a sunshade sattelite that cools the earth by limiting the earth’s sun exposure, failed efforts to reduce global warming and greenhouse gas emissions have made geoengineering a little more welcome in society.

Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone, an atmosheric chemist and president of the National Academy of Sciences, says that

Geoengineering is no magic bullet. But done correctly, it will act like an insurance policy if the world one day faces a crisis of overheating, with repercussions like melting icecaps, droughts, famines, rising sea levels and coastal flooding.

Read more about developments in the emerging field of geoengineering in the New York Times.

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick Visions/Photo Researchers

Wired Magazine recently released a list of the top 10 stupid engineering mistakes of all time. Engineering &… likes to think that learning from mistakes is half the battle.

Image courtesy of University of Missouri-Rolla

The latest craze in poetry is neither limerick, nor haiku. It’s Fibs! Gregory K. Pincus of the literary blog, GottaBook invited his readers to try their hand at using the Fibonacci sequence of numbers (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, …) to dictate the number of syllables per line of poetry. The formula for the sequence of Fibonacci numbers (featured above) produces the next number in the sequence by adding the two previous Fibonacci numbers to each other.

Pincus’ first Fib is as follows:

One
Small,
Precise,
Poetic,
Spiraling mixture:
Math plus poetry yields the Fib.

Try your hand at Fibs or read more about them in the New York Times.