A GLISTENING slice of human brain rests delicately atop a shining metal pedestal, like a freshly served dessert. Lynne Bilston pulls a lever. A hefty weight suspended above falls and the brain is squashed flat. A "squishometer" records exactly how much it flattens. "Why not have it fall from higher up?" I ask, not expecting a serious answer. "If you do that the brain just flies out," says Bilston nonchalantly. "Believe me, I've tried." No doubt she has: this entire lab is cluttered with all sorts of sophisticated gadgetry for stretching, twisting and torturing soft, slippery objects.

Bilston, a biomechanical engineer at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Sydney, is one of a growing number of researchers engaged in the often messy business of squishing brains, jiggling breasts, stretching livers and even plucking fallopian tubes like banjo strings. Believe it or not, there is a reason for such ...