The Essential Engineer
Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems
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The Essential Engineer
Narrated by:
Mark Deakins
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Mark Deakins
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By:
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Henry Petroski
About this listen
Henry Petroski takes us inside the research, development, and debates surrounding the most critical challenges of our time, exploring the feasibility of biofuels, the progress of battery-operated cars, and the question of nuclear power. He gives us an in-depth investigation of the various options for renewable energy—among them solar, wind, tidal, and ethanol—explaining the benefits and risks of each. Will windmills soon populate our landscape the way they did in previous centuries? Will synthetic trees, said to be more efficient at absorbing harmful carbon dioxide than real trees, soon dot our prairies? Will we construct a “sunshade” in outer space to protect ourselves from dangerous rays? In many cases, the technology already exists. What’s needed is not so much invention as engineering.
Just as the great achievements of centuries past—the steamship, the airplane, the moon landing—once seemed beyond reach, the solutions to the twenty-first century’s problems await only a similar coordination of science and engineering. Eloquently reasoned and written, The Essential Engineer identifies and illuminates these problems—and, above all, sets out a course for putting ideas into action.
Photograph of The New York Times Building (c) David Sundberg/Esto
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Critic reviews
"Analyzing both historical and contemporary examples, from climate change to public health, Petroski shows how science often overlooks structural, economic, environmental and aesthetic dimensions that routinely challenge engineers. Moreover, he says, sometimes science trails technology, as when engineers had to design the first moon landing vehicles before scientists learned its surface composition. Far from being hostile toward science, Petroski pleads for continued cooperation between science and engineering. When, as Petroski laments, even President Obama has sometimes omitted engineering in touting science, this book could hardly be more timely."--Publishers Weekly
"With customary acuity and variety, Petroski is sure to please his established readership with these interesting disquisitions on technology." --Booklist
"With customary acuity and variety, Petroski is sure to please his established readership with these interesting disquisitions on technology." --Booklist
From here the book goes downhill. The author appears to have sought to juxtapose a thought-provoking narrative from contradictory science articles in American newspapers.
Sadly the result is an uncritical repetition of junk science and articles from the oil and gas lobby, unworthy of the book's title. By summarising "another article" with no scientific or engineering acumen, he takes each article as carrying equal weight and forms an argument around climate change that is closer to Donald Trump's than the scientific consensus.
The uncritical reliance on American media leaves the listener wanting to punch the player, as the imprecise language and generalisation is complemented repeatedly by well known oil industry PR.
Every wind turbine emits more CO2 in construction than it saves in its life. Incorporating renewable power results in "massive" cost increases for consumers through subsidy (strangely subsidy of other power sources is overlooked).
Electric vehicles could never meet the requirements of the public, who need to drive 300 miles and recharge in 15 minutes.
Just a few of the many, in some cases painful, absence of fact checking throughout the book.
Lengthy and misleading
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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?
someone who is obsessed with the idea that engineers don't get respectWould you ever listen to anything by Henry Petroski again?
maybeWho might you have cast as narrator instead of Mark Deakins?
n.aIf you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Essential Engineer?
at least the first half.Any additional comments?
this guy is completely obsessed with the idea that engineers don't get enough respect, and goes on and on about how sometimes engineers are called scientists and vice versa. it is un-listenable. i couldn't finish it, as he just talks for hours about this one completely uninteresting point.I AM AN ENGINEER! LOVE ME!
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