A scientist describes what is. An engineer creates what never was.
Theodore Von KarmanRead
Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been.
Interpretation
Scientists observe and understand the current state of the world, while engineers design and build new possibilities.
This quote emphasizes the distinct yet complementary roles of scientists and engineers. Scientists focus on understanding the natural world through observation and study, uncovering its laws and principles. In contrast, engineers take that knowledge and apply it creatively to design and create new systems, structures, and technologies that have never existed before, ultimately shaping and transforming society.
In practice
In a motivational speech about innovation at a tech conference.
A scientist describes what is. An engineer creates what never was.
I don't believe that the ultimate theory will come by steady work along existing lines. We need something new. We can't predict what that will be or when we will find it because if we knew that, we would have found it already!
Nothing great in science has ever been done by men, whatever their powers, in whom the divine afflatus of the truth-seeker was wanting.
The ride to orbit was impressive, as it always is. But once I got on board the space station, it really felt like I was visiting an old home; it felt very comfortable.
I don't have an issue with what you do in the church, but I'm going to be up in your face if you're going to knock on my science classroom and tell me they've got to teach what you're teaching in your Sunday school. Because that's when we're going to fight.
Carbon has this genius of making a chemically stable, two-dimensional, one-atom-thick membrane in a three-dimensional world. And that, I believe, is going to be very important in the future of chemistry and technology in general.
To come very near to a true theory, and to grasp its precise application, are two different things, as the history of science teaches us. Everything of importance has been said before by someone who did not discover it.
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