Science and advocacy
Previous blogs have cautioned against crossing the line between science and advocacy. But what does that mean in practice, and why is it a problem? For one thing, it’s contrary […]
Engineering education
The National Academies
The National Academies are a private, nongovernmental organization advising the federal government on science, engineering, and medicine. Abraham Lincoln authorized the creation of the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. […]
Clarence Wigington, architect
A contemporary of Julia Morgan, Clarence Wigington was the nation’s first African-American municipal architect. Despite a lack of formal training, he became a senior architectural draftsman in the office of […]
Engineers aid in urban search and rescue
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) established the National Urban Search & Rescue Response System in 1989. Engineers started serving on urban search and rescue teams the following year. Disasters […]
Science and magic
The British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke developed three laws, the most famous of which is, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Isaac Asimov expressed a similar […]
Get to the point
Years ago, I worked on the development of high-performance concrete for an offshore oil platform in Alaska. We needed to conduct abrasion testing at below-freezing temperatures, so we wanted to […]
Material Change report aids in responsible sourcing
Responsible sourcing is the human-rights aspect of supply chains. The idea is that it’s not enough to follow ethical practices within your own business. You also need to ensure that […]
A test for spotting fraudulent statistics
As countries report their death tolls due to COVID-19, some appear to be providing fraudulent statistics. Dmitry Kobak has examined them using the Poisson distribution. It’s a useful way to […]
Julia Morgan, architect and engineer
Before Julia Morgan became an architect, only men practiced architecture. First she studied civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1894—the only woman in her class. […]
Learning from natural experiments
Experiments usually involve a controlled environment where we can limit the number of variables. In a traditional experiment using the scientific method, we hold everything constant except the thing we […]