SCIENCE

SCIENCE VS. ENGINEERING

Introduced by Dr John Coates OBE, DSc, MA, RCNC (Retd) on 23 October 1998

The title of this talk is intended to indicate not the opposition of engineering and science but their complementarity and their difference. Has one stimulated the other?
Before the 16th century man’s attitude to the natural world was characterised by three elements: empirical practice; rational thought and magic - broadly, engineering, science and religion. At that time, engineering developed without significant help from science, except for inputs from Arab advances, especially in mathematics. Later, some aspects of science stimulated engineering and vice versa e.g. navigation stimulated clock-making; the inefficiency of steam engines stimulated the study of thermodynamics. But until the 19th century, rational thought accepted the duty to acknowledge theology, although from the 16th century some curiosity about the natural world was satisfied for its own sake.
Technology can be considered to be Know How as opposed to Know What and is now the tools of Engineering. Science and engineering have become closer over the last two centuries, although science has a higher status, even if feared and rejected by some people, whilst engineering is thought of as menial hackwork, especially in the UK. What the journalists call science is often its application by engineers but it seems that only dead engineers get their due - Brunel, Royce, Whittle. In the UK, engineers no longer run manufacturing companies, accountants do. Remember “ An engineer can make for sixpence what any fool can make for a shilling”.
Where have things gone wrong and what can be done about it?
During the discussion it was considered that engineers do not present themselves or their work effectively to the public. Many examples of the present, low status of engineers were mentioned and it was agreed that this was damaging to the country.
Don Lovell