Bioengineers, like computer programmers in the Linux open-source software movement, are encouraged to contribute "bricks" voluntarily, and can order the parts they need over the Internet.

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Reed figured what bioengineers needed to turn fantasy to fact was a library of standardized DNA components that could then be used to construct designer genes from scratch.

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Drug researchers and bioengineers hope to eventually find ways to boost patients' odds of regaining consciousness through compounds or devices that spur remaining neurons to send signals more efficiently.

FORBES: Twilight Zone

To design them, bioengineers had to start with cadavers, which furnish the data on precisely how much force a human chest can withstand, say, before the ribs start to break.

FORBES: Dead Man Working

Working independently of those large projects, bioengineers in university labs have drawn on recent advances in nanoscale lithography, miniature microscopy, genetic engineering and biochemical imaging techniques to build new tools to reveal relationships between brain cells.

WSJ: Brain Science: Mysterious Neural Circuitry Becomes Viewable