A lecture that I heard at our orientation program laid stress on the importance of Biology in Engineering. The importance is explained by an interesting example is as follows.
An employee of the famous and frontier company named OIL (Oil India Limited) once called up his mate (who is currently a professor in Gauhati University) to find a solution to his problem. His problem, a bacterial component poses threat to some of the oil component standing as a challenge to the mass production of oil. The solution as given by the professor was simple. Just introduce a microbe into the bacterial component, the bacterial dies and the problem gets solved. The employee of OIL then calls up his higher notch to know if the microbe is available in OIL laboratory. He then learns that the microbe was bought from a private firm at a cost of 45 lakhs.
According to the professor, who heads the Biology department in Gauhati University, the microbe could be simply made in a culture for just Rs.15
By the above example the professor makes everything clear, biology can’t be neglected in engineering studies; else an engineer can be cheated.
Some of the engineering colleges in India have introduced Biological Science as a subject in Engineering and others might follow. Student often neglect this subject thinking he/she has nothing to do with it but the example as explained above shows the brighter side of biology.
Rishi
ReplyDeleteyou've written 'Just introduce a microbe into the bacterial component, the bacterial dies and the problem gets solved.' What I understand is that the bacterium needs to be introduced into the oil to break down the component posing an obstacle in its production, right? Can you give me the name of this bacterium? Its really interesting.
Lira
This blog post was written with reference to a 15 minutes lecture given to us by a professor in GU. I'll soon get in touch with the same professor to know further details on what he actually said.
ReplyDeleteI only know that a microbe named Alcanivorax borkumensis help reduce oil to smaller droplets so that bacteria can consume them (useful in oil spills) but at the same time some bacteria posing as a threat to oil production gets reduced by microbe.
I'll intimate you in this regard as further development proceeds.