How About a Biological Engineering Section?

Hi Dag,

That's a great idea. We are investigating adding a few new sections to CR4. We're bouncing around ideas like Instrumentation and Education & Training, but would like to hear from the CR4 community on this. Where would you like us to go? How would you like us to grow?

- Chris

That's really exciting! I know engineers have diverse interests, so in my opinion, the more, the merrier! Being in the education industry, I'd love to see a section on education and training.

Insofar as bio-technology, this is an area where there are many overlapping disciplines. It would be fascinating to see the conversations that devlop...not to mention the knowledge I could gain...

Hi Chris ,

I agree with MintyFresh that a bio-medical forum would be good. CR4 contains a lot of posts on this area . Some excellent contributions by members (for example on prions) get buried within various forums . They can be found if you know what your looking for , but that's the problem. It's in the nature of things that threads wind up veering off topic , but often much interesting stuff gets posted in totally unrelated threads . A specific forum would give a home to much that is of interest to all. A specific bio-med forum would enable people with a general interest to discover (and contribute to ) the many fascinating topics the area covers. Biological sciences seem (to me) to be fairly distinct compared to the current forum listings.

Kris

Now that's annoying - I hit the 'anon' box for some stupid reason and can't go back to edit it right ! Sorry folks , I've not had enough coffee rations this morning.

Kris

Hi Everybody,

I think CR4 would be a great place to discuss the myriad industries that are affected by the biotech field. I think this could also be a great place to discuss the sensitivity of many of the biotech issues.

I think a great dialogue could ensue where people could discuss their varying viewpoints on some of these hot topics. The following are a few areas, in particular, that I've been researching here at Globalspec: bioinformatics, genomics and genetic engineering, process biotechnology techniques, and proteomics, and cell/tissue culturing (where your micro-prorogation techniques would fit in) to name just a few.

This recent article in the NYTimes discusses DNA profiling of dogs.

As Breeders Test DNA, Dogs Become Guinea Pigs

Breeders are working to eliminate the "bully" whippet from litters. What do you think of this as a practice in general? I believe in diversity. These breeders are simply trying to fix mistakes they've made themselves.

What if the dating game were to come to this? Can you imagine a future where not only did you showcase your personal profile of interests and assests, but also a DNA profile to your potential mate! It conjures up images of the movie Gattaca and the like.

Just as an update... CR4 will be adding a Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology blog to the site. Stay tuned!