What physicists do, engineers like and biologists may consider
Both physicists and engineers like to increase their knowledge, but with different
consequences. While physicists have used proven theories and empirical observations to
develop new models (and even bigger new experiments), engineers apply their knowledge
to change things by providing better machines. Biologists did extremely well over the last
centuries to describe additional details and general concepts of extremely complex
biological systems. They needed to do this with basic empirical theories and models often
not physically based. They never had a chance to start with simple physical models,
reflecting the actual physical state of science, as their reality – life – had always been
complex and needed complex models for any kind of understanding. But some things are
changing now more than quantitatively.