Friday, April 04, 2008

Science and Engineering as Art

From the BBC news website (again...) is a short opinion piece by Mark Miodownik, head of the Materials Research Group at King's College London, who (as seems to be all too common these days) bemoans the lack of development of young scientists/researchers/engineers in present day Britain. Pointing as many others do towards flaws in the education system, and a lack of willing among commercial enterprises to put money into keeping people in science (rather than letting them be tempted by the larger salaries available in other lines of work), he makes a comparison between science and art, which is new to me, but which I rather like:
"Science is like poetry in this respect: it is an expression of something sublime. Engineering likewise is an expression of human emotions and passions - cars, hip replacements and even washing machines are as much expressions of our soul as paintings, literature and music."