How Living Things Fail, and Why it Should Matter to Engineers

ABSTRACT

Living things fail in an infinite variety of ways, inevitably ending in total malfunction and death. The study of failure in living things is called pathology, and many pathologies will be familiar to engineers who see similar behavior in engineered products and systems. However, for some types of pathology there are no obvious engineered counterparts, for example organ failure due to autoimmune disease. This is because engineered systems have not yet reached the level of complexity and breadth of dimension to bring them on a par with the intricacies of life. As engineered products and systems become ever-more complex, a knowledge of biological pathology could become a useful guide for failure prevention by design engineers and failure determination by engineers who conduct failure analysis investigations.

This summary reviews the major classes of biological pathology and how there are often remarkably similar counterpoints in engineered systems. The intent is to show an approach that might be used to guide engineering failure investigations, and potentially help design more robust products.

Bio:

Dr. Russell Kerschmann is a pathologist with 30 years experience in clinical practice and pathology research. Dr. Kerschmann's undergraduate education centered on electrical engineering and neurosciences. He earned his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts, with residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. During his career, he has served on the pathology faculties of Harvard Medical School, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of California at San Francisco. From 2004 to 2009, he was executive manager of the Space Biosciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center, where he helped initiate programs in radiation biology and toxicology. He continues as a consultant to the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), where he co-founded an initiative in nature-inspired design.