PULLMAN Dave Bahr and David Field, professor and associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME), will present “Coug-busters Meat Ballistics Gel,” 7 p.m., Tuesday Nov. 18 in Smith CUE 203 as part of the Common Reading Tuesdays program at WSU.Their presentation tackles the subject of using materials to simulate the human body for research.
The WSU Common Reading program is designed to unite a large freshman class with a common book that they discuss in and out of class. This year’s book is “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,” by best-selling author Mary Roach.
Bahr and Field are the tenth set of Common Reading Tuesdays’ presenters. Their topic relates to the chapter six in Stiff, where the author discusses the “sticky ethics of bullets and bombs.”
Using a recipe found on the Federal Bureau of Investigation Web site, Bahr and Field created a ballistics gel with a certain density and videotaped shooting bullets at it. Gel is used in ballistics research because it provides uniform testing since human bodies are too variable to test.
“We had a lot of fun doing this,” comments Field.
A unique aspect to this Common Reading Tuesdays presentation is that there was a large amount of participation from Bahr and Field’s undergraduates majoring in MME.
“It is amazing how curious and driven our undergraduate students are. We never had to ask them for help on this. They just volunteered immediately,” said Bahr, who is also WSU’s director of the Office of Undergraduate Research.
“We hope that by presenting for the Common Reading Tuesdays audience we can promote MME to more freshmen so they know what the major is and that it is available here at WSU,” said Field. The name of their presentation ties to the popular myth-busting TV show where the hosts try to prove whether “myths” are true or busts.
Common Reading Tuesday evening events have been attended by more than 3,700 freshmen and other students, faculty and staff this semester. The Common Reading Tuesdays series has allowed faculty from across the university to talk about their field and research as they relate to topics in the Common Reading book.
