Bioengineering

Abstract
This report is based on a school assessment researching Bioengineering as it has progressed through the recent 100 years and what impacts Bioengineering has on the individual and community. The purpose of this report is also to show a recent development in the Bioengineering field. The finding of this report is great as it shows that Bioengineering is massive to the people that are in need of a body part.

Table on contents

Introduction PG 4

Main Sections PG 5,6,7

Conclusion PG 8

References PG 9

Introduction

The main aim of this engineering report to investigate the development of Bioengineering including the effects on society and the individual, analyse ethical issues associated with Bioengineering and to outline one recant development in the field of Bioengineering. As a class we have been researching Bioengineering for a four-week period.

Main Sections
1. The development of bioengineering and the effects on society and the individual.
Whether known as bioengineering, biological engineering, biomedical engineering, biotechnology or other names, the science has had an impact on food production, medicine and the environment.

The pace of development in biotechnology is increasing at a rapid rate in modern times. The Biotechnology Institute lists four events from the B.C. era. Then from 1590 to 1833 there were eight historical events in biotechnology. From 1855 to 1888 there were again eight events. In the first half of the 20th century there were 18. In the 1950s and 1960s 12 notable biotechnology events occurred. By 1970, the advances became numerous enough to be listed by decade. In 1980s and 1990s numerous events took place each year. It would be difficult to single out those that are the most important, according to the Biotechnology Institute. For example the development of eye glasses by the way the lens its self and the frames have improved over the last 100 years. Glasses use to be heavy as they were made from metal but the development of polymers aloud the frame to become lighter. Now there are glasses so thing and light that if you drop and step on them they are pretty much guaranteed they don’t crack. This is a break through as the development of eyeglasses continues.

A simple definition of biotechnology is humans' use of organisms. This is a centuries-old practice now known by terms such as cloning. Whenever a human removes a leaf and uses it to produce a new plant, it is a form of cloning. The technology of this science has now reached the atomic level through genetic engineering.

The effects of bioengineering has on society is massive as it can help disabled people in a way that, the effected person can replace their leg if they had it blown off in war. In these unfortunate circumstances they are able to replace it with a prosthetic leg. This type of engineering impacts on a great number of individuals too as it can change their life by replacing and eyeball so the patient can see again out of that eye. This is amazing technology even though it is quite pricey, but yet rewarding.

2. Analyse ethical issues associated with bioengineering.

Ethics of bioengineering are very broad. There are a number of right and wrong procedures that are taking place in bioengineering. One of these issues are testing organs on animals, many people consider this to be wrong as it may cause harm to the animal been tested. On the other hand the engineers say this is good because it give them results weather they are getting to what they want for example growing artificial organs inside animals then fitting them to a human body once they are ready for harvesting. This event is wrong and right but ends up helping out the person in need of the organ.

The other ethical issue is that a bunch of people are arguing that it is wrong to have non humane body parts attached to the human body. This counts for a prosthetic leg, they disagree that they should not have a leg rather than a prosthetic leg. I believe this is wrong as bioengineers are helping us and these types of people are putting the engineer’s work down. It is a wonderful thing to know people are enjoying having their leg back and been able to walk.

3. Outline one recent development in the field of bioengineering.

Otto Bock Genium Bionic Knee is a new prosthetic knee technology released in 2011. The Otto Bock Genium state-of-the-art knee joint utilizes a complex sensory system and sophisticated rule sets to mimic natural gait more closely than any other prosthetic knee. With multiple environmental inputs, the Genium delivers unmatched functionality, including special features to help step over obstacles and ascend stairs. The Genium builds on the knowledge gained from our experience with tens of thousands of C-Leg wearers and decades of development. The unique Genium technology is not a next-generation C-Leg, but is a sophisticated new technology platform built to gather exponentially greater microprocessor inputs that result in very precise responses. This type of knee I a great breakthrough for these disabled in need of a knee able for the person to be able to run and move about a lot easier than ever before.

Conclusion

To sum up the innovation of bioengineering had advanced massively in the last 20 years. This is because of the more technologies available and the more amounts of engineers in this field. Bioengineering is a brilliant part of people’s life as they may be in need of a body part and for it to be able to replace that just makes their day. Bioengineering will continue to surge in the future.

References http://www.astepaheadonline.com/aboutus_tech.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9315431 http://www.utwente.nl/gw/wijsb/organization/brey/Publicaties_Brey/Brey_2009_Biomed_Engineering.pdf http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/eventinfo/eibe/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_engineering http://bioengineering.stanford.edu/