A soldier with a prosthetic leg is pictured at the Personnel Recovery Centre in Edinburgh. Image: Sgt Ian Forsyth RLC
Our body is a little bit like a machine: our bones form a robust structure, which is moved by muscles. Our digestive system is in charge of taking up energy from food and the blood stream delivers it to where it is needed. We even have a very sophisticated waste management system, and all of this machinery is controlled by a central computer: our brain.
Biomedical engineers apply their design and problem solving skills to biology and medicine to improve healthcare. Some of the most well-known biomedical applications are micro-implants, complex equipment to look inside our bodies or robotic artificial body parts.
In the Health zone you’ll meet five engineers with very different exciting jobs. There’s an engineer making new medicines, and another working on the surface of materials to be input in the human body such as bone implants. There is one engineer designing new ways to fix the human body when it’s broken, as well as one improving the lives of people with painful conditions like back pain and arthritis. Finally, one test parts of the hip to destruction and looks at the damage different hip shapes create.
You can find out more about the engineers in this zone, and what they work on by reading their profiles. Click on their names at the top of this page to find out more!
