Bio means Life. Bioengineering applies engineering principles, laws of physics and chemistry in a general sense, to the understanding and modeling of living systems. Biotechnology identifies methods, processes and techniques resulting from bioengineering. Such technology attempt control and duplication of bio-processes (chemical, mechanical) performed by living systems. Examples include the micro-scale (molecular level) recombination of DNA to the macro-scale functioning of an artificial lung [1].
Contributions from bioengineering has been to several conventional engineering categories including instrumentation and measurements, materials, analysis, and modeling. Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. In a way, any engineering invention, application or method applied to humans and their health related issues in particular can be considered as a contribution of bioengineering. For instance, as early as the 16th century Professor Sanctorius (1561-1636) of Padua, attempted developing a thermometer for comparing temperatures of different persons [3].
Biothermology or Bioheat transfer, the study of heat transfer in biological systems, can be seen as a subdivision of bioengineering.
