To combat this giant gray market--where fakes can easily snake their way into the drug supply--Bond and other drug company executives are hoping to turn to a new technology, called radio frequency identification, or RFID, which pairs a tiny microchip with a small antenna.

FORBES: Tiny Chips Could Combat Counterfeit Pills

Once a design is set, different bits of the manufacturing process are tried out on computer: a virtual pipe-bending machine, for instance, makes sure that the fuel lines which snake their way through the airframe can be created without wrapping themselves around the machine and bringing it to a halt.

ECONOMIST: Manufacturing technology

Snake has come a long way since being the quintessential TI-86 title, and although Nimblebit is straying far from their sim offerings such as Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes, the title has a lot going for it.

FORBES: Nimble Quest Is An Addictive Little Gem

Yet while the statements about aspirin have to be cushioned in the vaguest generalities, snake oil flim-flam can be huckstered in the most truth-defying way, thanks to a 1994 law coaxed through Congress by the people who make these drugs.

CNN: Herbal remedies need real scrutiny

Then he'd have the person stand in front of a two-way mirror looking into the room where a friend of theirs was holding a snake.

CNN: You are the creative type

Choset and his team have designed a number of different snake robots that can undertake all manner of tasks from assisting in surgery to leading the way in rescue missions after earthquakes or collapsed mines.

CNN: Snake robots slither to the rescue