The Engineer and the Life Sciences

Within recent years the life sciences have realized the significance of the contributions which can be made by the engineer, and the engineering sciences are beginning to realize the value of the contributions which can be made by the life sciences in bionics. A new field has developed which may be called bio-medical engineering. The National Institutes of Health is now engaged in a program designed to provide support in research, training, and facilities for this broad area. Support will be largely in the field of the application of engineering theory to the biological sciences, and may not include some of the aspects of applied engineering or instrumentation except as they arise as a result of theoretical development.