Science vs. Engineering, what it means to be MSE

So I just now attended and interesting invited talk that probed some questions about the amazingly smooth si-SiOx interface. And it actually resonated with a conversation I had with one F.Wong, one of my colleagues. We were discussing the relative merits of engineering vs. science. He was argueing that engineers aren't given enough credit for taking existing phenomena that appear in science and optimizing them for actual technical use. I was argueing the other side saying they have to go hand in hand, and one cannot be had without the other.  know he gets extremely excited about understanding the science behind things, but lately has been trying to get more involved in the engineering aspect of things and wants to do more device related research, so I beleive he was merely playing devil's advocate. But it is an interesting thing to think about. While understanding the science provides new directions for engineers to often take advantage of. It is occasionally things like the Si-SiOx questions that were really given to scientists by the work of many wise engineers. The talk focused on understanding the nature of the amazingly abrupt interface between crystalline Si and SiO2. And while we are still trying to understand it, this hasn't stopped us from using this amazing phenomena in todays technology at all. I think I really like being a material researcher because it opens up the avenues to being both a scientist and an engineer!