"A scientist can discover a new star, but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do that." - Gordon L. Glegg
The topic seems quite awkward or one can ask why it is to be discussed here on the blog. But i really find myself in an apt situation to discuss it so as to share one's view who is stuck between these two professions. When people ask me about my profession i tell them that i am working as a scientist in BARC and suddenly i find myself between a questionnaire. The very next question they fire at me is what RESEARCH i am doing or do i make BOMBS. During four years in my engineering tenure i felt like an engineer and now suddenly by a tag of SO(Scientific Officer) i have become a scientist(quite fast one!!! isn't it). Now really i ask myself, Am i an engineer or a scientist?? :)
During my school days i used to portray in my mind, scientist as a person who is wearing specs, little old with long white beard and white hairs. Probably this was due to the impact of Movies or Serials what we used to watch those days. This portrait just came real when i saw Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam and that picture of scientist just got locked in my mind until i did my training in DRDO (Defense Research & Development Organization) in B.E. Third year. There i find that scientists are normal kind of people and there is nothing so peculiar about them. This word is looked for as a group of some elite persons who are continuosly in search of truth(or u can say a new discovery/invention). And this is because probably in history we haven't met a great engineer(or is it so??? oops did i miss leonardo da vinci!!!)
If we ponder more deeply we will find ourselves struggling with many questions like who a scientist actually is, what is the difference between a scientist and an engineer, what it takes to become a scientist, what is the meaning of research in actual words, Are the scientist the only persons who do the so called research and many more...
Anyway, I would say that the main difference lies in the motivation. Scientists look for how the things work in nature and engineers try to solve a practical problem. Both work hand in hand. Scientists come up with ideas by imitating nature and engineer with all his expertise try to model that idea into a reality.
Einstein had once said “Scientists investigate that which already is, Engineers create what there has never been”.
It doesn't mean that an engineer can't be a scientist or vice versa. It depends on the perspective of how we are dealing with some kind of a problem.
Scientists conduct research and engineers apply it. But when an engineer needs a better material, then he/she will go in the lab and conduct experiments(or we can say research). When a scientist wants to conduct a new type of test, he/she will engineer a new system to do so. So we can judge a person as a scientist or an engineer by what he/she does the most of his time instead of looking at what the profession he/she is in. That also defines research. Research does not require word “R” to be associated with any department. If you are looking at any problem in a different way that may be feasible under nature laws then it is research(what a scientist does) and to practically make it feel you have to solve some equations and come up with a viable means to achieve it(that is what an engineer does).
During my school days i used to portray in my mind, scientist as a person who is wearing specs, little old with long white beard and white hairs. Probably this was due to the impact of Movies or Serials what we used to watch those days. This portrait just came real when i saw Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam and that picture of scientist just got locked in my mind until i did my training in DRDO (Defense Research & Development Organization) in B.E. Third year. There i find that scientists are normal kind of people and there is nothing so peculiar about them. This word is looked for as a group of some elite persons who are continuosly in search of truth(or u can say a new discovery/invention). And this is because probably in history we haven't met a great engineer(or is it so??? oops did i miss leonardo da vinci!!!)
If we ponder more deeply we will find ourselves struggling with many questions like who a scientist actually is, what is the difference between a scientist and an engineer, what it takes to become a scientist, what is the meaning of research in actual words, Are the scientist the only persons who do the so called research and many more...
Anyway, I would say that the main difference lies in the motivation. Scientists look for how the things work in nature and engineers try to solve a practical problem. Both work hand in hand. Scientists come up with ideas by imitating nature and engineer with all his expertise try to model that idea into a reality.
Einstein had once said “Scientists investigate that which already is, Engineers create what there has never been”.
It doesn't mean that an engineer can't be a scientist or vice versa. It depends on the perspective of how we are dealing with some kind of a problem.
Scientists conduct research and engineers apply it. But when an engineer needs a better material, then he/she will go in the lab and conduct experiments(or we can say research). When a scientist wants to conduct a new type of test, he/she will engineer a new system to do so. So we can judge a person as a scientist or an engineer by what he/she does the most of his time instead of looking at what the profession he/she is in. That also defines research. Research does not require word “R” to be associated with any department. If you are looking at any problem in a different way that may be feasible under nature laws then it is research(what a scientist does) and to practically make it feel you have to solve some equations and come up with a viable means to achieve it(that is what an engineer does).
