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. - Publisher.
Reviews with the most likes.
Did not finish.
Why did I pick this book?
I was looking for more books for Industrial Designers/Engineers. Got the recommendation to read any work by Petroski and was able to pick this one up from the library.
The book
This is really an essay on the difference between Scientist and Engineers. At the start there's quite an entertaining discourse on how Scientists and Engineers are mentioned in the media, with Scientists always being the one's to discover new, lifesaving/world-changing discoveries and the Engineers being the ones who make stupid Engineering errors and don't think things true.
Later on the book talks more about famous engineers and scientists and the overlap between the fields. At this point I stopped reading.
My take and recommendation
A few chapters in I noticed myself asking the question why I was reading this book. Although the start was entertaining, though a bit painful being an Engineer, the word use between Scientist/Engineer is not an issue in my language/culture. After that I could not really answer what it was I was expected to take away from this book.
Read if you are a journalist or write articles on Science and Engineering, if you're a scientist/engineer who has time on his/her hands and just wants to read something. Otherwise, for engineers I'd much more recommend biographies by Steve Jobs, James Dyson or even Adrian Newey.
