Engineering Is Not Science

Engineering is applied science.

Engineers need a good foundation in basic science in order to engineer. Therefore engineers can do science. Scientists usually can't do engineering because they normally are not dealing with the real world, but, rather, simplified models of the real world that gives them more control over the outcome of their experiments. This is why scientists usually get paid more than engineers...to compensate them for their lack of understanding.

The common person sees something happenning and says "wow"

The scientist says "why"

The engineer says "what can I do with it"

The entrepreneur says " who will buy it"

By using the scientific knowledge the engineer can apply this to solve problems. The engineer is therefor a science exploiter, or practical scientist.

Engineering is the practical application of science in order to solve a real world problem. Whoever it was that claimed that engineers don't understand science must also be the kind of idiots who think that cars can burn water for fuel.

The author of the article is Henry Petroski, an engineer who has written a number of popular books about engineering. In his article he makes the following statement referring to the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which he then uses as the basis for the article:

"...government and other research scientists were allowed to veto the engineering tactics needed to stanch the flow."

Had he done a bit more research, he would have discovered that officials (political types, not scientists or engineers) in the Obama administration overrode the recommendations of the scientists.

So the entire article was not-only pointless but contrary to facts. Mr. Petroski should have known better.

And just by-the-way: One of the few two-time winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics was John Bardeen, who mostly worked as an electrical engineer. (BS and MS in EE, eventually got a PhD in Mathematical Physics).