Articles in Magazines, Newspapers, etc.       (incomplete list)

"All Rights Reserved—for Eternity," The Washington Post, September 2, 1999, p. A39 [op-ed page].

"Bless the Backspace, Just Don’t Count on It," Washington Post, July 18, 1999, p. B5.

"Invention is the Adopted Child of Necessity," Wall Street Journal, July 26, 1999, p. 22 [editorial page].

"Leon Moisseiff." In American National Biography, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Vol. 15, pp. 662-664.

"From the Observation Deck," in Roundup: An Anthology of Texas Poets. D. Oliphant, ed. Cedar Park, Texas: Prickly Pear Press, 1999. pp. 143-147.

"Can Children of Cyberspace Become Engineers?" 21st Century Science and Technology, Summer 1999, pp. 4-5.

"The Paper Clip Lesson," Works, Journal of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecure, University of Minnesota, Fall 1999, pp.

"The Hubris of Extreme Engineering," Scientific American, to appear November 1999.

"The Toys that Built America," American Heritage of Invetion & Technology, Spring 1998, pp. 40-45.

"Of Books, Bridges, and Durability," Harvard Design Magazine, Fall 1997, pp. 19-21.

"Aluminum Angst," The New Yorker, October 20 & 27, 1997, p. 90.

"Beyond Tin Cans: Construction Toys and Engineering," in Toying with Architecture: The Building Toy in the Arena of Play, exhibition catalog. Katona Museum of Art, 1997, pp. 5-9.

"Radio Days," Civilization, February-March 1997, pp. 64-73.

"Success Syndrome: The Collapse of the Dee Bridge," Civil Engineering, April 1994, pp. 52-55.

"The Merits of Colossal Failure," Discover, May 1994, pp. 74-81.

Foreword to When Technology Fails: Significant Technological Disasters, Accidents, and Failures of the Twentieth Century. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993. [Reissued in paperback as, Breakdown: Deadly Technological Disasters. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1995.]

"A Rub-Out?," The New Republic, December 6, 1993, p. 11.

"On Centennials and Things," ASEE Prism, June 1993, p. 56.

"How Designs Evolve," Technology Review, January 1993, pp. 50-57.

"Memories of a Low-Tech Christmas," The New York Times, December 24, 1992, op-ed page.

"Form Follows Failure," American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Fall 1992, pp. 54-61.

"Let Us Now Praise the Humble Post-it," Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1992, pp. 104-110.

"The Anonymous Profession," reprinted in Renssaeler, December 1992, pp. 4-7.

"H. D. Thoreau, Engineer," South Atlantic Quarterly, Winter 1991 (vol. 90, no. 1), pp. 39-60.

"Time to Oil the Nobel Gears on Behalf of Engineers," The Oregonian, October 28, l99l, p. 87.

"On the Backs of Envelopes," reprinted in The Bridge, Fall l99l, pp. l8-22; AIAA Student Journal, Fall 1992, pp. 2-6.

"Engineering as a Liberating Education," Engineering Outlook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Winter 1990.

"Why Americans Eat with their Right Hand," Wigwag, December 1990, pp. 85-86 [reprinted in Utne Reader, March/April 1991, p. 114].

"The Invisible Engineer," Civil Engineering, November 1990, pp. 46-49.

"The Engineer: Belying the Stereotype," Engineering Education, April 1990, pp. 402-406.

"Growing Role for the 'Invisible Profession'?" Design News, June 11, 1990, pp. 132-134.

"Of Styluses and Diamonds: Annals of the Pencil," Education Week, April 18, 1990, pp. 56, 36.

"James Nasmyth," Mechanical Engineering, February 1990, pp. 40-46.

"H. D. Thoreau, Engineer," American Heritage of Invention and Technology 5 (Fall 1989), pp. 8-16.

"Perfect Up to a Point," Across the Board, September 1989, pp. 44-49.

"Teaching Technology to Nontechnologists," National Forum, Spring 1989 [interdisciplinary studies issue], pp. 29-30.

"Why Not a Nobel Prize for Engineers?," Design News, February 15, 1988 [special awards issue], pp. 130-132.

"Engineering and the Nobel Prizes," Issues in Science and Technology, Fall 1987, pp. 56-60.

"Nobel Prizes Should Honor Legacy of Their Engineer Founder," Raleigh, North Carolina, News and Observer, October 23, 1987, p. 19A. [Distributed nationwide by National Academy News Service.]

"Still Cogent After All These Years" [on the tercentenary of Newton's Principia], Mechanical Engineering, July 1987, pp. 48-52.

"Inventions Spurned: On Bridges and the Impact of Society on Technology," Impact of Science on Society 37 (No. 147, 1987), pp. 251-259.

"Dress for Success: The Dust Jacket as Art, Advertisement and Nuisance," The New York Times Book Review, May 18, 1986, p. 21. [Also read by the author on Soundings, the radio program of the National Humanities Center, and broadcast the week of October 19, 1986.]

"David Steinman, Poet, Historian, Bridge Builder, Founder of NSPE," Engineering Times, June 1986, p. 6.

"NASA Changed the Rules," Houston Chronicle, March 27, 1986, op-ed page.

"Numeracy and Literacy: The Two Cultures and the Computer Revolution," The Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1985, pp. 302-317.

"From Slide Rule to Computer: Forgetting How It Used to Be Done," Across the Board, December 1985, pp. 48-53.

"Learning from Failure," Civil Engineering, February 1985, pp. 36-39.

"Teaching Technology to Nontechnologists," High Technology, December 1984, pp. 12, 14.

"Offshore Engineering: Oil from Troubled Waters," Technology Review, July 1984, pp. 52-61, 76. [Reprinted in Energy, Social Issues Resource Series, Vol. 3, 1985.]

"Teaching a New Generation of Engineers," The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 28, 1984, p. 34. [Reprinted in Engineering Times, May 1984, p. 4.]

"Technology Is an Essential Component of Today's Liberal-Arts Education," The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 1984, p. 88. [Reprinted in Engineering Times, December 1984, p. 4, and elsewhere.]

"The Amazing Crystal Palace," Technology Review, July 1983, pp. 18-28.

"How Poetry Breeds Reactors," South Atlantic Quarterly 82, 282-287 (1983).

"When Cracks Become Breakthroughs," Technology Review, August-September 1982, pp. 18-30.

"Soft Energy Technology Is Hard," Technology Review, April 1982, p. 39.

"Don't Switch Off Energy Research," The Washington Post, April 7, 1982, op-ed page.

"Saturday Night Asleep at the Switch," The Christian Science Monitor, January 27, 1982, opinion and commentary page.

"Who Will Teach the Engineers?" The Washington Post, January 21, 1982, op-ed page. [Reprinted in DukEngineer, Spring 1982, p. 5.]

"Of Boys and Baseball Cards, and Business," The New York Times, July 12, 1981, Business and Finance Section.

"Reflections on a Slide Rule," Technology Review, February-March 1981, pp. 34-35.

"Of Two Libraries," Technology Review, January 1981. pp. 12-13.

"Amory Lovins Guides the Hard Technologists," Technology Review, June/July 1980, pp. 12-13. [Reprinted in Across the Board, October 1980, pp. 63-65.]

"Logon Proceeding," Science 80, May-June 1980. pp. 26-29.

"An Options Market in Brainstorms?" The New York Times, June 4, 1978, Business and Finance Section, p. 12.

"And a 4-Sided Triangle," The New York Times, December 22, 1977, op-ed page. [Reprinted widely.]

"Technology and Literature," New Engineer, February 1975, pp. 45-46.