Engineering, Science, and Design

It is argued that the fields of science and engineering are at two ends of a spectrum of shared technological products (artifacts) and processes in which, at any given time and to some lesser or greater degree, scientists behave as engineers and engineers as scientists, creating technological artifacts and contributing to knowledge domains that drive and advance both fields. Employing an example from synthetic chemistry, it is shown that the concept of design governs the research process and production of its artifacts. And, just as it does in engineering, these artifacts exhibit the functional and quality characteristics of engineered products.