Engineering Joint Lubrication

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In our rapidly modernizing world, engineers are kept busy solving problems. Take for example, all of the various kinds of transportation. There are millions of problems in this area alone that keep engineers busy inventing better solutions.

Freight trains carry enormous loads in huge freight cars, each one capable of carrying the weight of the average home and everything in it, plus an automobile. Yet the axles must be able to swivel easily beneath the car as the train moves along tracks that swerve left and right. Consider the problem of setting 100 tons or more on a swivel without hindering the free movement of the swivel. Engineers at Shell Oil finally designed a disc that is placed beneath the body of the car to lubricate the axles for swiveling. Whenever the disc is squeezed by the weight of the load above or from too much friction in swiveling, lubrication automatically squirts out of the disc.

It is this same ingenious system that lubricates certain joints in your body. When additional lubrication is needed in a joint, tiny discs release lubricant into the joint. These discs are called bursae. And if you have ever had bursitis, you know what happens when the discs aren't working properly.

It's not science but faith in evolution that leads people to believe that this well engineered system could be the result of accidental mutations.