Engineers are from Theory, Biologists are from Experiment


Spread the love

As you know from my previous blog entries, I’m a biologist who makes lab equipment for a living. In my new work life as a machine builder, I spend much of my time working with engineers. It’s great fun, and I’m learning tremendous amounts from them. 

One of the most interesting parts is what I think of as the “engineer mind.” Even though science and engineering are both very analytical disciplines, I’ve noticed a more subtle difference in how I was trained to deal with unknowns vs. the way they were. To put it on a bumper sticker, they reason and I interrogate.