To enable every new scientific discovery, someone must first construct the necessary tools. A physician must have his CT scanner, a bench scientist her microscope. Every experiment rests on a foundation of others’ ingenuity.
And yet, we rarely stop to think about those who build these instruments, the mechanical engineers who sketch, model, weld, and saw to create a precise and reliable tool out of raw materials (and a bit of elbow grease).
It was at the MIT’s Sports Innovation Lab that I first began to appreciate this role. I came to the lab expecting to see science at the cutting edge, experiments that pushed the envelope. Yet what I observed was a process that is the necessary and unglamorous predecessor to new discovery.
Rastislav Racz, aka Rasto, a mechanical engineering student, was working to build a bicycle rig, a platform on which high performance bikes would be placed to undergo testing in MIT’s Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel. On paper, the goal was straightforward: to build a rig that would hold the bicycle steady and measure the forces of the wind on the bicycle’s rider and frame. The final product would be a rather unexciting collection of aluminum and steel that would nevertheless be vitally important for future experiments in the lab.
The first step was to tackle the design, which Rasto had already been wrestling with for over four months. Pencil sketches and physics equations filled notebook upon notebook. Much of his time was spent repeating a laborious and solitary cycle: brainstorm, scribble, calculate, and repeat. Full Article »
