In honor of EngineersWeek, ScienceCareers explores a question many science trainees face today: What's the difference between a scientist and an engineer?
I always knew I wanted to study biology. But before enrolling in college, my university threw me a curveball: Did I want to major in science or engineering?
I remember running frantically through a college fair, asking every booth attendant the same questions: What's an engineer? How is an engineer different from a scientist? And, most importantly, can I keep this pen? Twenty years later, I'm a scientist , but I still have no idea where to draw the line between science and engineering. In one of my graduate school rotations, for example, I worked on protein engineering. But I was enrolled in the biology department—and the lab where I rotated was in the chemistry department.
So, do engineers not understand what they build? Like, they make a car, but then they think the car is magic? Or, when it would be helpful for scientists' research to build something, do they just shrug and go home? Another is that"engineers solve real problems, while scientists solve theoretical problems." This explanation sounds like it was written to deliberately shortchange scientists—because when a theoretical problem has a theoretical solution, what's to say they're not both a bunch of bull? How many roads must a man walk down? Five. Good job, scientists.
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