Hello. I’m Rachael Holmes, and I will be your link to chemical-biological engineering through the tentatively named Insite Bloggers Project. I hope to spark your interest in engineering and MIT. Stay tuned for future videos with me and other Insite bloggers learning about and having fun with engineering.

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Ever curious as to who makes soap, laundry detergent, or deodorant? Why not ask Rachel, our in-house expert?

Hey guys! I just wanted to explain a little bit about what Chemical-Biological engineering actually is. Chemical-biological engineering is a branch of chemical engineering. Chemical engineering is changing raw materials and chemicals into products.

You guys are familiar with many of these products because you use them everyday. Most of the soaps, deodorants, and even toothpastes you use are made by chemical engineers. They also make and develop fuels and other sources of energy. In fact, many are involved in developing new methods of fuel and energy production since oil is becoming scarcer. There will always be more puzzles for chemical engineers to solve which makes it a really cool field to study.

Chemical-biological engineering focuses more on applying chemical engineering to biological systems. The biological system I am interested in is the human body. So, I want to use chemical engineering to develop the medicines and treatments for people who are sick. That includes medicines like the ones you take when you’re sick to medicines for people who are really sick in hospitals. Since I love biology but want to be able to apply it to develop medicines, chemical-biological engineering seems to be a good match for me. Well that’s my intro to chemical engineering.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!

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At this point, I suspect a lot of you guys may be wondering about what you need to know to become a chemical engineer? I mean chemical engineers have to know a lot of information if they can do such a wide variety of things from making household products to making medicines and even food. Where do they start?
Well, as the name implies, chemical engineers have good backgrounds in chemistry. The chemistry that you learn in middle school or high school is the basis for more complex subjects like thermodynamics, organic chemistry and fluid mechanics. Organic chemistry focuses on the structures of many molecules. Thermodynamics and fluid mechanics teach you about the way temperature and other factors affect chemicals and materials as which is an important factor in developing things that will humans will use. Chemical engineers have to think about many things we take for granted, like what will happen to chemicals inside the stomach where there are many natural acids that digest food, or what will happen in the blood stream where there are sensitive molecules that are essential to the body.
So, how well do you guys know the basics? Are you familiar with the periodic table? Chemical engineers have to know all about the properties of the elements found in the periodic table. Really, elements are the building blocks of the molecules that chemical engineers deal with. Here’s a game of hangman to test your knowledge on the periodic table elements.
education.jlab.org/elementhangman/index.html

If you’re interested in chemistry, this website has some cool games and information related to chemistry.
www.creative-chemistry.org.uk

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Hey guys! So, when I was studying for my biology exam, I found this website with a really cool virtual lab that I thought you might find interesting. It’s on a process called gel electrophoresis. Gel electrophoresis involves a substance very similar to Jell-o, except you can’t really eat it. Gel electrophoresis is used to identify different individual’s DNA. As some of you may know, DNA makes every person who they are. While about 99.9% of DNA is the same from person to person, the other .1% is what makes each person different. Gel electrophoresis allows engineers and scientists to identify people based on these differences. Gel electrophoresis is one of the ways crime scene investigators (like the guys on CSI or Law and Order, if you watch those) can tell who is guilty of committing a crime.

Although gel electrophoresis is rather complicated, it is still a pretty cool process. Basically, pieces of DNA are placed inside of little wells on one side of a gel. Then, electricity is run through the gel, causing the DNA to move from one end to the other. The reason the DNA actually moves is because of its chemistry. It is negatively charged and wants to go to the positive end of the gel, which is on the side opposite to the wells. The DNA strands that were placed in the wells are different sizes, and will move at different speeds. The bigger strands will move slower than the smaller strands. After a set amount of time, the electricity is turned off, and the gel is examined. There are several bands that are in different spots depending on the size of the DNA. The DNA in the gel can be compared to the DNA found at a crime scene, and can prove if a person is guilty or innocent.

This virtual lab walks you through the steps of gel electrophoresis. There is even an interactive part once they introduce you to the whole process. Check it out!
learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/biotech/gel/

Again, I know some of this may be confusing, so feel free to ask me any questions that occur to you.

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