Engineering on Steroids: The Incredible Design of the Human Body
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Every day your body must solve hundreds of hard engineering problems simultaneously, or else you’ll die. These problems involve multiple coordinated, integrated systems that have to come online, not gradually, but all at once and at just the right time and place. Can an evolutionary process explain the development of these systems? You be the judge. On today’s ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Steve Laufmann, co-author with Dr. Howard Glicksman of the new book Your Amazing Body, a fresh, abridged version of their previous book Your Designed Body. In this discussion, Laufmann brings his engineering background to bear on the marvels of human anatomy, showing us how the human body is not just functional but brilliantly designed. We’ll explore how engineering intersects with biology, how an engineer and a physician worked together to lay out this evidence, and what the new streamlined book can offer readers.
One example of this engineering at work is our journey from a single cell to trillions. Laufmann describes this transition from one cell at conception to around two trillion cells at birth and eventually 30 trillion cells as an amazing feat and a formidable engineering challenge. He asserts that this development is not random but represents “problem solving at its finest” and “engineering on steroids.” Laufmann specifies that this rapid development requires incredible engineering to accomplish, relying on a detailed plan that must contain specifications, build instructions, testing mechanisms, course correction, and precise timing. He breaks down the engineering involved into four hard problems that must be solved during development:
1. Differentiation: The generation of at least a couple hundred different types of cells (potentially several hundred, including various neurons) from the original single cell. These differentiated cells must have distinct shapes, perform specific functions, and run different internal programming.
2. Organization: Cells must be located in specific, non-random places and concentrations. Furthermore, cells are organized hierarchically into tissues and organs. This challenge includes defining and unfolding the precise, complex three-dimensional shapes of structures, such as the bones of the middle ear.
3. Integration: All the differentiated cells, systems, and subsystems must be functionally connected. This integration must be managed mechanically, electrically, chemically, and fluidly, with the integration plan originating within that first single-cell zygote.
4. Coordination: Ensuring that the timing is correct for all functions and determining when different systems and parts come online during development. One example discussed is the late development of the lungs.
Laufmann is amazed that this complex process so rarely fails, noting that it goes right almost all the time.
That’s just one of the systems Laufmann discusses. Watch or listen to the conversation for more!
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