The Science Cycle

I often have heard engineering referred to as the "science of engineering," or “Engineering Science”, which I find very disingenuous – rather like calling agriculture or animal husbandry “Gastronomic Science”.

Science is a process of investigating the nature of the universe, and explaining its processes. Engineering is concerned with how to use and manipulate those processes to create technology.

Together these constitute a cycle, that I call the Science Cycle, similar to the Water Cycle. It is about how one part of a cycle feeds the next stage of the cycle, which in turn provides the material for the original part of the cycle.

Water in the form of rivers, lakes and oceans feeds clouds through vaporization in the summer and sublimation in the winter, which in turn feeds rain or snow, which in turn feeds rivers, lakes and oceans.

Scientific inquiry discovers the nature and processes of the universe, which in turn feeds, in part, the technological manipulation of those processes through business-controlled engineering, which, sometimes, in turn often raises new questions about the nature of the universe for science to pursue.

First and foremost, science is the primary tool for the pursuit of knowledge. Science is involved in all segments of what I call The Science Cycle, but it remains distinct from every part of it, except itself. Like H2O, which is always present in the water cycle, but it is not always in one given form, serving one given purpose. Science is, always, inherently science, not technology.

It is not industry driven, although it can and often does drive industry, and not always business-driven industry. It is not industrial in and of itself, although industry is, in every part, dependent upon it.

The difference is significant, as science is arts & knowledge-based (a pursuit of knowledge obtained through the creative scientific method), whereas engineering is business based (economic based manipulation of that scientifically derived knowledge). Equating the two is to make one the task-master of the other, in effect binding the pursuit of knowledge to the economic purposes of business rather than the purely knowledge-based purpose of philosophy,

Philosophy is, according to Miriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary 2025: “(1): all learning exclusive of technical precepts and practical arts.”

Engineering, on the other hand, is , according to Miriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary 2025: “2(a): the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people.”

Today, when industry is taking over the concept of science as merely a branch of Research and development (R&D), this can be a dangerous way of looking at the relationship, resulting in purpose-driven business interests controlling knowledge-driven Universities.

A danger exists when truth must exist only for the service of expedience. This is one of the major dangers we face today, in the 21st century.