21st Century Engineering by Anirudh Dhebar
December 2025
Pursuing recreational engineering: Observe, be curious, wonder
This headline borrows from a “philosophy” attributed to Manu Prakash, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, in a Q&A in Quanta Magazine(“How Paradoxical Questions and Simple Wonder Lead to Great Science,” May 28, 2025,
link.iise.org/prakash_ quantamay25). The attribution appears in the description: “Manu Prakash works on the world’s most urgent problems and seemingly frivolous questions at the same time. They add up to a philosophy he calls ‘recreational biology.’”
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