Yes, I agree with the idea, but the sense of "use ... similar to ..." implies intent and temporal order in many contexts. If I use language similar to Ernest Hemingway, am I justified in expressing it in the reverse order?

More realistically, in copyright and patent disputes, saying a person has "used ... (a method) similar to" that of a presumed originator matters a great deal, and a defendant in such an action may well reverse the order of the words in his own defense -- "I didn't use a method similar to Mr. Smith's, he used a method similar to mine." Clearly there's a temporal order implied in this particular context.

> And if the biological knowledge is a more recent discovery that the engineering knowledge...

Good point. One might assume biology is farther along in its grasp of the intellectual terrain than engineering, but that's not necessarily true.