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    The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems
    Unavailable
    The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems
    Unavailable
    The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems

    Written by Henry Petroski

    Narrated by Mark Deakins

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world's most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns.

    Henry Petroski takes us inside the research, development, and debates surrounding the most critical challenges of our time, exploring the feasibility of biofuels, the progress of battery-operated cars, and the question of nuclear power. He gives us an in-depth investigation of the various options for renewable energy-among them solar, wind, tidal, and ethanol-explaining the benefits and risks of each. Will windmills soon populate our landscape the way they did in previous centuries? Will synthetic trees, said to be more efficient at absorbing harmful carbon dioxide than real trees, soon dot our prairies? Will we construct a "sunshade" in outer space to protect ourselves from dangerous rays? In many cases, the technology already exists. What's needed is not so much invention as engineering.

    Just as the great achievements of centuries past-the steamship, the airplane, the moon landing-once seemed beyond reach, the solutions to the twenty-first century's problems await only a similar coordination of science and engineering. Eloquently reasoned and written, The Essential Engineer identifies and illuminates these problems-and, above all, sets out a course for putting ideas into action.


    Photograph of The New York Times Building (c) David Sundberg/Esto
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 23, 2010
    ISBN9780307707321
    Unavailable
    The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems

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    Reviews for The Essential Engineer

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      "Science is about knowing, engineering is about doing." The author works, in this book, to explain the difference. Important issues are discussed in this book. Henry Petroski asks how decisions affecting our lives, lifestyles and world are made. How do we gather information, how is the data collected, and then who fixes the problems that have been identified.I am happy I stumbled upon this book. Think about all the big technical and political problems that face us in the 2010s and begin to think about how we deal with these problems. There are sensible ways to approach technical problems. It does not mean the technical problems can all be fixed or that the right decisions will always be made. But, we do know how to approach technical problems, if we think about it and use the lessons of human life in the last few centuries.I enjoyed chapter 11, where the author talks about C. P. Snow's lecture "The Two Cultures." This conceptualization of the difference between those who know something about the hard sciences versus those who know about humanities and literature is still relevant today. Although it probably could be updated and modified, we certainly see differences in groups of people who believe in hard sciences and other groups of people. The author and Snow correctly, I believe, point out the similarity in approach that links those separated by this divide and point to possible ways to bridge the gap.Petroski lists the 14 challenges defined by the National Academy of Engineering. This list addresses some of the big problems we as a civilization should be seeking answers to, and include: restore and improve urban infrastructure, reverse-engineer the brain, and prevent nuclear terror.The book concludes in chapter 14, titled "Prizing Engineering."This concluding chapter argues for encouragement of young upcoming and existing engineers. Also the author ends with the obvious, but vitally important conclusion, that the biggest problem for humanity is not the need to improve science and engineering, but the need to improve how humans understand and use technology and each other.