Petroski, Henry. The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems. New York: Vintage, 2010.
Policy makers seem to love science. I can see why. Science provides a sense of specificity, certainty and consensus. It contrasts with the vagueness, variability and competition that policy makers usually have to deal with. That is more like the world engineering.
This interrelation of policy-making, science and engineering, especially the latter two, is the subject of Henry Petroski’s book, The Essential Engineer. In particular, Petroski emphasizes the important, and often overlooked, role of engineering is solving pressing problems.
I doesn’t help that people conflate science and engineering, especially by thinking of engineering as branch or application of science. Petroski is clear about the differences. Science is about increasing knowledge. Engineering is about invention. Sometimes scientists do engineering, especially when they create a devise or process to help them in their work of discovery. Sometimes engineers do science, especially when their engage in research and experimentation to gain a better understanding or problems that are not well understood.
The movement of knowledge from science to engineering practice is well understood. Petroski describes how this became ingrained in American research and development policy. Engineering often precedes science and engineers often must invent solutions in areas that are not well understood by science. Galileo’s improvements to the telescope made possible his advancements in astronomy. The science of thermodynamics grew almost entirely out of the desire to understand steam engines, which engineers had been building and improving in the absence of scientific understanding.
This misunderstanding exacerbated by our culture and education. Policy elites and scientist generally have no education in engineering. As an undergraduate studying engineering, I took science classes with students majoring in the sciences. I took classes in political science, economics and other social science and business-oriented classes with students majoring in those fields. I would have been greatly surprised to find in one of my engineering classes a student who wasn’t majoring in engineering.*
Petroski does not try to bring down science. He’s a civil engineering professor at a sizeable university, so he has probably spent quite a bit of time doing science. He does distinguish how science is helpful, mainly as a warning. Science can help us identify and define problems and assess the risks involve. When we begin to devise solutions to those problems, especially when there is no definitive solution and judgment is needed to way the pros and cons of multiple possible answers, we are moving into engineering.
The Essential Engineer is not a technical book. It for anyone who may have an interest in the role of technology in addressing our problems, especially larger societal problems. Petroski draws illustrations from current events and history (he is a professor of history as well as engineering). The book is enlivened with a storytelling feel.
* There were exceptions. I took a course in food processing that was dual-listed in agricultural engineering and food science. It was a required course for both disciplines. Electrical engineering students almost automatically minored in math, and some clever and ambitious students double-majored in those subjects. With a little better planning, I could have swung a minor in agricultural economics, and I almost wish I had. When I got into wastewater engineering, I wished I had taken more microbiology. My pursuit of additional education lead to a graduate degree in public administration. Government agencies have been employers or clients most of my career. It is common for engineers to get a masters degree in business, especially as they become managers.
Henry Petroski also wrote Paperboy.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp
The Big Necessity by Rose George
Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
Related News
Avoiding Doomsday: New Ideas for Deflecting Killer Asteroids
Future Asteroid Mission: Mission Impossible?
Potential meteor menace overstated
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Engineering News. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Engineering News. Sort by date Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Friday, December 21, 2012
STEM Books
I’ve reviewed 39 STEM-related
books (and counting). STEM is an acronym
for science,
technology,
engineering, and mathematics. As you may have seen in the news, there is a
push to improve STEM education,
interest students in STEM fields, and grow the number of workers
in these fields. The idea is that these
will be the skills needed by workers of the future. If you’re a STEM educator or a student
considering a career in STEM fields, you might like to take a look at some of
these books.
I’ll confess that I’m not an educator, but I think most of these books
will be accessible to high school and college students, and a few to middle
school students. The list is also a
reflection of my career and interests in engineering, public
health, policy,
and history. Even with these biases, I think it is a good
list for someone looking for STEM-related books.
I was fascinated by robots as a
kid. I enjoyed reading Isaac Asimov’s
robot stories. I longed for the Omnibot
2000 in the Sears Wishbook.
Robots have come a long way. In How to Build an Android, David F. Dufty
describes the short strange life of a very complex robot made to look and talk
like science
fiction author Philip K.
Dick. The robot had a very
sophisticated and lifelike head and complex artificial
intelligence. As with most complex
things, it was the work of many people who had to solve a lot of problems.
If you’re interested in robotics, this is an interesting nontechnical
book. In addition, you’ll get introduced
to some freaky sci-fi. You may even get
as (somewhat) legitimate reason to use the word “Dickhead” (capitalized, it
refers to a fan of PKD, so don’t go using it on anyone).
The Interstate
highway
system in the United States
is one of the most enormous structures built.
Some of the prospective STEM students who read this may actually be
younger than the Intestate system, though in some sense it is never complete
because it needs constant repair and maintenance. The Interstates were completed in the 1990s, but the Federal-Aid
Highways go back to 1916.
Earl
Swift wrote an accessible history of the Interstates in The Big Roads. If you interested in automobiles
or transportation,
it’s a good read.
Deborah
Cadbury describes seven wonders of engineering in Dreams of Iron and Steel. It covers almost a century of history, but
many of the events are concentrated in the Victorian Era. That was a time of great technological
innovation.
Though the book is history, many of the structures still stand. Railways, the Brooklyn
Bridge, the Suez
and Panama
Canals, and Hoover
Dam stand testament to an age of big engineering.
Though the memory of Professor Wragg’s sneer prompts me to not make
this confession, part of my interest in science and technology came from comic
books. Iron Man was
cool. Spider-Man’s
web shooters were very cool. Superhero
comics are full of fantasy,
admittedly, but the strange, unrealistic science and technology they depict
have inspired many to study STEM in reality.
Physicist John
Kakalios uses examples from comic books to explore real physics in The Physics of Supeheroes. Sometimes comics get there science
right. Even when they get it wrong, it
can be instructive. If you know what
people are talking about when they refer to the “New 52,” you may find this
book to be a great introduction to physics.
Here is another confession: I’m not especially interested in math. I endured a lot of math classes to study
engineering. Reading David
Acheson’s 1089 and All That did
not require such endurance. For one
reason, it is a short book. For another,
Acheson doesn’t expect his readers to be mathematicians; it is enough to follow
the outline of the math he discusses.
I recommend this book because so many people have a fear of math. 1089
can be followed by many high school students and older folks with math
phobias. Just take a deep breath, relax,
and follow along as well as you can.
You’ll see that math can be interesting, useful, and even beautiful in a
way.
Judith
St. George’s The Brooklyn Bridge is a short history of and iconic bridge. Written for the
bridge’s 100th anniversary, it is also the story of the engineers
who sacrificed life and health to see it completed: John Roebling and his son Washington. John Roebling was
a German immigrant who built many suspension
bridges and owed a wire-making business. He gave his son
and extraordinary education in bridge engineering for the time, and before
beginning work on the Brooklyn Bridge he served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Why should a cutting-edge STEM student read about a
bridge that is almost 130 years old? It’s
because we still use and rely on very successful, centuries old technologies. Improving and rebuilding our infrastructure will be an important part of our economy. As recently as 2010, New York City and the federal government committed $500 million to
repair and repaint the Brooklyn Bridge.
STEM lumps together science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics. Is there a difference
between science and engineering? Is it
important?
Henry
Petroski, a professor of civil
engineering and history and author of The Essential Engineer, believes
there is an important difference. At
heart, science is about increasing knowledge. Engineering is about invention. Of course, new knowledge makes new invention
possible. Just as often, though,
engineering runs ahead of science.
Sometimes science didn’t advance until someone invented the instruments
to conduct new observations and experiments.
The invention of the microscope
made possible the science of microbiology. Steam engines
were built and greatly improved before we had a modern scientific understanding
of thermodynamics. In fact, thermodynamics was to a large extent
born out of desire to understand steam engines. In this sense, it is an
engineering science (study of manmade things) as much as a natural science
(study of natural things) or branch of physics.
Petroski’s focus in the book is the importance of engineering to
policymaking, where it is often overshadowed by science. Policy, science, and engineering play off of
each other a lot. Most of my career as
an engineer has been related to government, policy, and regulatory compliance.
The Ghost Map by science writer Steven
Johnson is the story of the birth of epidemiology. Epidemiology is a medical
science that uses statistics to
help us understand how diseases operate in a population. Using various statistical and geographic
tools, long before we had computers and GIS, physician
John Snow
demonstrated that cholera,
once a recurring plague
that wiped out hundreds of thousands of people in some outbreaks, was a waterborne
disease. This understanding,
initially met with much skepticism, allowed officials to intervene to prevent
the spread of the disease. For those who
say of their math classes, “I’ll never us this,” here is a case where math (and
science and policy) were used to make a great difference.
It is not much publicized today that the Lewis
and Clark
expedition of 1804
to 1806 had a
partly scientific mission. Captains
Lewis and Clark were charges with bringing back samples of the flora, fauna, and culture of the
western territories. It was also hoped
that they would find a water
passage to the Pacific Ocean. In Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose
writes about the scientific mission as well as the policy, diplomacy, and
commercial
hopes the expedition carried.
Of course, what attracts most people to the Lewis and Clark expedition
is that it was a great adventure. There is a place in STEM fields for thoughtful
adventurers and explorers.
A list like this deserves something strange, creepy, and more fun than you care to
admit. Right now, thousands of very
young future STEM workers are catching bugs and snakes, breaking
their toys to see
what is inside, or staring into space with a weird expression
of vacancy and concentration.
Jan
Bondeson’s Buried Alive is not a
morbid book. It is sometimes humorous,
especially in consideration of topic.
From a STEM point of view, Bondeson shows how knowledge accumulates over
time. The fears and activities of our
forefathers may seem strange to us, but they sometimes made sense in light of
what they knew. Buried Alive doesn’t simply play off our fascination with the grotesque and death, though the
book might not have been written if we lacked that fascination, I think it
reminds us to approach our ancestors with a touch of grace and humility. Maybe our progeny will show us the same courtesy.
If you’re looking for something for a younger student, check out this post→
from Joanne
Loves Science or these
recommendations→ from STEM
Friday. By the way, I also write
about engineering, infrastructure and the environment at Infrastructure Watch.
Google
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
News from My Alma Mater
As you may know, I’m a graduate of the University of Missouri where I was a student in the Biological Engineering Department (formerly Agricultural Engineering). Here is some recent news from that department.
Associate Professor Allen Thompson is the principal investigator for a project to study stormwater best management practices (BMPs). The university, along with the Columbia and Boone County, are required to implement BMPs to protect Hinkson Creek. Engineering faculty and students will be working with Campus Facilities staff to implement and study these environmental compliance measures. (By the way, I took Dr. Thompson’s soil and water conservation class back in the day.)
Associate Professor Bill Jacoby is studying super critical water gasification. This is a high-temperature, high-pressure, low-oxygen process that decomposes biomass and produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. A portion of the biomass energy is consumed to fuel the process, but it can be an energy neutral process.
Associate Professor Allen Thompson is the principal investigator for a project to study stormwater best management practices (BMPs). The university, along with the Columbia and Boone County, are required to implement BMPs to protect Hinkson Creek. Engineering faculty and students will be working with Campus Facilities staff to implement and study these environmental compliance measures. (By the way, I took Dr. Thompson’s soil and water conservation class back in the day.)
Associate Professor Bill Jacoby is studying super critical water gasification. This is a high-temperature, high-pressure, low-oxygen process that decomposes biomass and produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. A portion of the biomass energy is consumed to fuel the process, but it can be an energy neutral process.
Friday, November 28, 2008
What's New Nov. 28, 2008
The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry
A Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
Changes to Missouri Design Professional Laws and Regulations
EPA Region 7 to Host Environmental Justice Grant Workshop
Get Involved / Volunteer - Membership and Sections - AWWA
Glossary
Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar
Interesting Stuff Nov. 9, 2008
Interesting Stuff Nov. 28, 2008
Resolution Could Affect Education Requirements for Engineering Licensure
Transportation News
Water Infrastructure News Nov. 24, 2008
Water Resources News Nov. 13, 2008
Water Resources News Nov. 24, 2008
What's New Nov. 5, 2008
A Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
Changes to Missouri Design Professional Laws and Regulations
EPA Region 7 to Host Environmental Justice Grant Workshop
Get Involved / Volunteer - Membership and Sections - AWWA
Glossary
Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar
Interesting Stuff Nov. 9, 2008
Interesting Stuff Nov. 28, 2008
Resolution Could Affect Education Requirements for Engineering Licensure
Transportation News
Water Infrastructure News Nov. 24, 2008
Water Resources News Nov. 13, 2008
Water Resources News Nov. 24, 2008
What's New Nov. 5, 2008
Friday, July 24, 2009
News from My Alma Mater
I’m an alumnus of the Department of Biological Engineering (it was Agricultural Engineering back then) at the University of Missouri. I occasionally include recent news from the department in my blog.
Dr. Allen Thompson is developing a Web-based to aid terrace design. Terraces are embankments used to reduce erosion, typically on agricultural land. Used in conjuction with LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) topography, the application has the potential to quickly develop terrace lay-outs, related water collection and drainage and produce alternative designs.
Dr. Allen Thompson is developing a Web-based to aid terrace design. Terraces are embankments used to reduce erosion, typically on agricultural land. Used in conjuction with LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) topography, the application has the potential to quickly develop terrace lay-outs, related water collection and drainage and produce alternative designs.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
The Johnstown Flood by David McCollough
On Memorial Day 1889, a storm struck western Pennsylvania. Floods were common enough in the mountain
community of Johnstown and the surrounding villages. This
one was extraordinary. Upstream the valley sat a structure that was poised to
make the flood much worse, the dam
at South Fork Reservoir.
David McCullough describes the flood and the
devastating dam break in The Johnstown
Flood. It was the worst disaster in the United States up until its time with more than
2,000 people killed by the huge wave that swept down the valley, with more
killed by fire and disease in the aftermath.
The dam had originally
built by the State of Pennsylvania too supply water for a canal. Within a few years the canal was
closed because the railroad provided freight and passenger transportation through the area. The dam changed
hands several times after that. I fell into disrepair. Somewhere along the line
someone salvaged the pipes that allowed one to control the water level behind
the dam; though in it partly collapsed state it no longer held much water.
This changed when
developers bought the dam and surrounding property to build a resort for the
wealthy industrialists of Pittsburgh. The dam was rebuilt with
indifference to materials and methods. The drain pipes were never restored. The
spillway was obstructed by a grate (to keep the fish in the stocked lake from
disappearing downstream) and low bridge. By the time of the flood, perhaps
since it was repaired, there was a slight dip in the center of the dam,
creating an unknown, unprotected second spillway. This dip was hard to see with
the eye on the large dam, but a survey to measure the elevations would have
turned it up.
The dam filled and the
lake became quite large. The vacationers sailed ships on it. The water level
was commonly within a couple of feet of the spillway, and there was no
practical way for the dam operators to control that water level. It was a
disaster waiting to happen.
Many of the people of
Johnstown expressed concern that the dam was a danger to the city. However, the
prevailing view was that the wealthy elite of Pittsburgh would have it built
right; very few endeavored to assess it for themselves. Similarly, the members
of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, including such prominences as Andrew Carnegie, had faith that the developer did the
work right, and they put no effort into checking it out.
When the floodwaters
overtopped the earthen dam, it collapsed quickly, unleashing a deadly wave of
possibly 20 million tons of water. It is hard to imagine the devastation caused
by the wave, even 15 miles downstream in Johnstown. McCullough describes it,
sometimes in great detail, based on reports from the time. The rolling wall of
water seems awesome at first, but as it begins to destroy homes and injure and
kill people, it becomes sickening as well.
The people of that
valley recovered with admirable speed and took over the cleanup and restoration
of their town the very next day. Soon aid came from across the country, and
especially from elsewhere in Pennsylvania, including the National Guard and a still young American Red Cross.
As the initial terror of
the event subsided, attention turned to the club at South Fork. Though the
press, including the Engineering
News, laid blame
on the club and the shoddy, unprofessional work done to rebuild the dam, the courts
never held the club or its members accountable. The courts, mostly in
Pittsburgh where club members held sway, accepted that it was an act of God.
It’s clear to more objective observers that a properly built dam would probably
have survived the flood, or at the very least would have had a much less
damaging failure. Though McCullough suggests the residents of Johnstown and the
members of the club were too trusting, he does not shy away from the negligence
of those who rebuilt the dam in a way that would almost surely lead to the
disaster that came.
David McCollough also
wrote
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
News from My Alma Mater
Congratulations to Fu-hung Hsieh,
professor biological engineering
and the University of Missouri (I’m a
graduate of that department),
and Harold Huff
of the Food Engineering Lab for their development of a soy chicken product
called Beyond Meat. The work was
featured in the Winter 2013 issue of Mizzou
(you can find more on the web here→). The university has licensed the product to a
company that will be manufacturing it in Columbia, MO.
Apparently, it is easier to make soy look, taste, and feel
like chicken than to get people to eat their vegetables. That may be more of a social issue than an
engineering problem.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
What's New Oct. 3, 2009
Action Packed (12)
Best of First 100 Books Reviewed
First Featured Book
Halloween Reading & Entertainment
Infrastructure Watch Internal News
Infrastructure Watch Now on Twitter
Interesting Stuff Oct. 3, 2009
Louisiana Transportation Official No Longer Required to be a Professional Engineer
Missouri Water Conference Scheduled, Call for Papers
News from My Alma Mater
Summary of Transportation Stimulus Oversight Findings
University of Missouri to Hold Open House for New Engineering Labs
What I Read (11)
What's New Sept. 6, 2009
Best of First 100 Books Reviewed
First Featured Book
Halloween Reading & Entertainment
Infrastructure Watch Internal News
Infrastructure Watch Now on Twitter
Interesting Stuff Oct. 3, 2009
Louisiana Transportation Official No Longer Required to be a Professional Engineer
Missouri Water Conference Scheduled, Call for Papers
News from My Alma Mater
Summary of Transportation Stimulus Oversight Findings
University of Missouri to Hold Open House for New Engineering Labs
What I Read (11)
What's New Sept. 6, 2009
Thursday, December 18, 2008
News of My Alma Mater
I’m a graduate of the University of Missouri’s Department of Biological Engineering. Back then, it was agricultural engineering. Here are some things that have happened there recently.
- Associate Professor Sheila Grant was recognized for her achievement at a faculty woman at an event sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies and the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women.
- Department Chair Jinglu Tan has been working on biomass uses for energy that are sustainable and have a low environmental effect.
Monday, July 19, 2010
News from My Alma Mater
University of Missouri Biological Engineering Professor Fu-Hung Hsieh has been elected as a fellow of both the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. The award recognize Hsieh’s achievements as a teach and his contributions to food processing technology. He was greatly involved in establishing Mizzou’s food engineering emphasis option and food extrusion research program.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
News from My Alma Mater
The University of Missouri’s College of Engineering (my alma mater) will hold an open house to celebrate the opening of new undergraduate laboratories and research space. The event will take place at Laferre Hall on the university’s Columbia, MO, campus. It will begin at 2 p.m. on November 5, 2009. The highlight of the event will, no doubt, be the blessing of St. Patrick, long recognized at the university as the patron saint of engineers.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
What's New Jan. 28, 2009
American Water Works Association Chooses New Officers
Amtrak May Benefit from Tunnel Bill
Book Review: The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin
Civil Engineers Give American Infrastructure a Low Grade
Congress to Consider Recovery Bill
Drinking Water Not Getting as Much of Stimulus Package as Advocates Hoped
Environmental Protection Agency Announces Decision on Missouri Impaired Waters List
Glossary (Amended)
God Wants You to Be Rich by Paul Zane Pilzer
Googleganger: high school football player
Government Accountability Office Summarizes Shipments on the Missouri River
http://truman.missouri.edu/uploads/newsletters/PlainSpeakingWS03.pdfhttp://truman.missouri.edu/uploads/newsletters/PlainSpeakingWS05.pdfhttp://engineering.missouri.edu/alumni/magazine/EngrMagazine06.pdfhttp://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Aug/20050803News015.asphttp://www.flouridealert.org/news/2338.htmlhttp://www.dddnews.com/story/1248425.html
Network with Infrastructure Watch on Facebook
New Infrastructure Report Card to be Released January 28
Ray H. LaHood Appointed Secretary of Transportation
Ritual
Spirituality
Take Small Steps to Improve Financial Outlook
The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin
What’s New Jan. 19, 2009
XING - Groups - All Groups - Consulting Business - Article thread ...
XING - Groups - All Groups - Entrepreneurs Playground - Article ...
Amtrak May Benefit from Tunnel Bill
Book Review: The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin
Civil Engineers Give American Infrastructure a Low Grade
Congress to Consider Recovery Bill
Drinking Water Not Getting as Much of Stimulus Package as Advocates Hoped
Environmental Protection Agency Announces Decision on Missouri Impaired Waters List
Glossary (Amended)
God Wants You to Be Rich by Paul Zane Pilzer
Googleganger: high school football player
Government Accountability Office Summarizes Shipments on the Missouri River
http://truman.missouri.edu/uploads/newsletters/PlainSpeakingWS03.pdfhttp://truman.missouri.edu/uploads/newsletters/PlainSpeakingWS05.pdfhttp://engineering.missouri.edu/alumni/magazine/EngrMagazine06.pdfhttp://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Aug/20050803News015.asphttp://www.flouridealert.org/news/2338.htmlhttp://www.dddnews.com/story/1248425.html
Network with Infrastructure Watch on Facebook
New Infrastructure Report Card to be Released January 28
Ray H. LaHood Appointed Secretary of Transportation
Ritual
Spirituality
Take Small Steps to Improve Financial Outlook
The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin
What’s New Jan. 19, 2009
XING - Groups - All Groups - Consulting Business - Article thread ...
XING - Groups - All Groups - Entrepreneurs Playground - Article ...
Monday, January 19, 2009
What's New Jan. 19, 2009
Air Pollution News
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Book Review: One Small Thing Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer
Civil Engineering Organization Calls for Members to Weigh In on Economic Stimulus Package
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Drinking Water Investment Could Create 400,000 Jobs
Environmental Protection Agency Accepting Comments on Total Maximum Daily Load Handbook
Environmental Protection Agency Calls for More Stringent Standards on Mississippi River
Glossary (Updated)
Interesting Stuff Jan. 8, 2009
“Introduction to Asset Management” to be Presented in March
Weight Loss Links (Updated)
What’s New Jan. 6, 2009
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Book Review: One Small Thing Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer
Civil Engineering Organization Calls for Members to Weigh In on Economic Stimulus Package
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Drinking Water Investment Could Create 400,000 Jobs
Environmental Protection Agency Accepting Comments on Total Maximum Daily Load Handbook
Environmental Protection Agency Calls for More Stringent Standards on Mississippi River
Glossary (Updated)
Interesting Stuff Jan. 8, 2009
“Introduction to Asset Management” to be Presented in March
Weight Loss Links (Updated)
What’s New Jan. 6, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)