Episode 407: Engineering

Welcome back to the show. We are so glad you are here, joining us for the book group discussion!

Each week we talk  about books and about different genres, and provide useful information for library people doing Reader’s Advisory work. There are so many books out there that it’s tough to be an expert on all of them. So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

This week we look at books on Engineering!

Who is joining us this week?  Our Guest Host is Jason Menth, the STEM Integrationist & CLR Coach from Talahi Community School. (Spoiler note: subscribe to Linking Our Libraries next season, so you can hear more about Jason’s work in the library!)

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. You are an important part of this book group, so if you don’t have a beverage go ahead and get one now. Each of our beverages will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself!

This week we are enjoying a set of beverages requiring construction, equipment, and some extra time. You can enjoy the engineering experience, with a fun cocktail afterward! They are all found on the Cocktail Chemistry Lab website, and we link to the recipe for each one in our shownotes.

Avengers “Infinity Cocktail”

What would Thanos drink after a long day of battling Avengers and snapping fingers? I imagine a complex man like Thanos would go for a Pousse Café, a labor-intensive cocktail of layered liqueurs. To prepare for the Endgame, here I made a version that represents each of the six infinity stones to celebrate the launch of my new “perfectly balanced” t-shirt.  

Equipment

  1. Cocktail set (includes Boston shaker, jigger, bar spoon, hawthorne strainer, muddler)
  2. Angled measuring jigger
  3. Champagne flutes
  4. Cocktail layering tool
  5. Thanos infinity gauntlet

Infinity Cocktail

  • Reality stone: 0.5oz (15ml) grenadine
  • Space stone: 0.5oz (15ml) blue curaçao
  • Power stone: 0.5oz (15ml) crème de violette
  • Mind stone: 0.5oz (15ml) yellow chartreuse
  • Soul stone: 0.5oz (15ml) Grand Marnier
  • Time stone: 0.5oz (15ml) green chartreuse
  1. In the order listed above, slowly layer in each liqueur into the champagne flute using a layering tool or the back of a spoon
  2. Rinse the layering device with water after each layer
  3. Sip slowly!

Color Changing Cocktail

Chemists have long known that certain liquids will change color when the pH is altered. You can use this technique to change a cocktail from blue to purple using butterfly pea flower tea.

Equipment

  1. Butterfly pea flower tea
  2. Tea pot
  3. Oil and vinegar cruet
  4. Bottle for storage
  5. Funnel
  6. Cocktail set (includes Boston shaker, jigger, bar spoon, hawthorne strainer, fine mesh strainer, julep strainer, muddler, cocktail picks)
  7. Coupe glasses
  8. Angled measuring jigger 
  9. Citric acid

Color Changing Cocktail

  • 2oz (60ml) of navy strength gin
  • .75oz (22.5ml) of citric acid solution (1/2tsp citric acid and 3oz/90ml water)
    • Alternatively use fresh lemon juice
  • .75oz (22.5ml) of simple syrup
  • 1oz (30ml) of butterfly pea flower tea
  • Small pieces of dry ice (optional)
  1. Add gin, simple syrup, and tea to a shaker tin with ice
  2. Shake for 15 seconds and double strain out ice
  3. Add citric acid solution to inner chamber of cruet and cap
  4. Add dry ice to outer cruet chamber
  5. Pour in cocktail to outer chamber (do not cap with dry ice)
  6. Pour blue cocktail inside coupe glass
  7. Instruct guest to pour in citric acid solution
  8. Watch the color change from blue to purple!

Emulsions (Cold Buttered Rum)

You can make delicious cocktails that incorporate fats by taking advantage of emulsions. Here we discuss the science behind emulsifiers like gum arabic to make a butter syrup for a “cold buttered rum” cocktail.

Equipment

  1. Ticaloid 210 S
  2. Digital scale
  3. Hand blender
  4. Cocktail set (includes Boston shaker, jigger, bar spoon, hawthorne strainer, muddler)
  5. Angled measuring jigger 

Butter Syrup

  • 200 grams water
  • 150 grams melted unsalted butter
  • 200 grams granulated sugar
  • 3 grams Ticaloid 210 S
  • 10 allspice berries, crushed
  1. Heat the water and infuse allspice berries for 5 minutes at a simmer, then strain out the allspice
  2. Hydrate the Ticaloid 210 S in the allspice water using the hand blender
  3. Add the melted butter and blend until smooth
  4. Add the sugar and blend until smooth
  5. Store outside the fridge until needed

Cold Buttered Rum

  • 2oz (60ml) spiced rum
  • Fat oz (1 1/8oz, 33.75ml) of butter syrup
  • 1/2oz (15ml) freshly strained lime juice
  1. Combine all ingredients in a shaker
  2. Add ice and shake for about 15 seconds
  3. Double strain into a chilled old-fashioned glass

Genre Discussion:

We spend a lot of time in this podcast talking about fiction genres, and there are fiction books talking about Engineering. But of course we like nonfiction books, we know your patrons are interested in them, and we’ve talked about several different genres. So we’re happy to look at this genre, that is just filled with books!

So, what is engineering? Merriam-Webster, as always, breaks down a complicated topic into a quick definition: it is “the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people.”

The website LiveScience.com talks about the job of an engineer, and several of the different types of engineering:

Engineers design, evaluate, develop, test, modify, install, inspect and maintain a wide variety of products and systems. They also recommend and specify materials and processes, supervise manufacturing and construction, conduct failure analysis, provide consulting services and teach engineering courses in colleges and universities.

The field of engineering is divided into a large number of specialty areas:

  • Mechanical engineering involves design, manufacturing, inspection and maintenance of machinery, equipment and components as well as control systems and instruments for monitoring their status and performance. This includes vehicles, construction and farm machinery, industrial installations and a wide variety of tools and devices.
  • Electrical engineering involves design, testing, manufacturing, construction, control, monitoring and inspection of electrical and electronic devices, machinery and systems. These systems vary in scale from microscopic circuits to national power generation and transmission systems.
  • Civil engineering involves design, construction, maintenance and inspection of large infrastructure projects such as highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, dams and airports.
  • Aerospace engineering involves design, manufacturing and testing of aircraft and spacecraft as well as parts and components such as airframes, power plants, control and guidance systems, electrical and electronic systems, and communication and navigation systems.
  • Nuclear engineering involves design, manufacturing, construction, operation and testing of equipment, systems and processes involving the production, control and detection of nuclear radiation. These systems include particle accelerators and nuclear reactors for electric power plants and ships, radioisotope production and research. Nuclear engineering also includes monitoring and protecting humans from the potentially harmful effects of radiation.
  • Structural engineering involves design, construction and inspection of load-bearing structures such large commercial buildings, bridges and industrial infrastructure.
  • Biomedical engineering is the practice of designing systems, equipment and devices for use in the practice of medicine. It also involves working closely with medical practitioners, including doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists and researchers, in order to determine, understand and meet their requirements for systems, equipment and devices.
  • Chemical engineering is the practice of designing equipment, systems and processes for refining raw materials and for mixing, compounding and processing chemicals to make valuable products.
  • Computer engineering is the practice of designing computer hardware components, computer systems, networks and computer software.
  • Industrial engineering is the practice of designing and optimizing facilities, equipment, systems and processes for manufacturing, material processing, and any number of other work environments.
  • Environmental engineering is the practice of preventing, reducing and eliminating sources of pollution that affect air, water and land. It also involves detecting and measuring pollution levels, determining sources of pollution, cleaning up and rehabilitating polluted sites and ensuring compliance with local, state and federal regulations.

 We link to the article that details all of these on our website, so you can spend some time browsing for yourself!

Suggested Reading Resources:

Books We Discussed

Rosie Revere, Engineer, by Andrea Beaty @andreabeaty

Marvelous Mattie, by Emily Arnold McCully

If I Built a Car, by Chris Van Dusen

The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires @ashleyspires

Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, by Chris Barton @Bartography

Norman’s Architecture Adventure, by Joshua Sanabria

Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words, by Randall Munroe @xkcdComic

To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, by Henry Petroski

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado Perez @CCriadoPerez

The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman @jnd1er

Conclusion

Thanks to Jason, for sharing this genre with us! Subscribe to our library skills training podcast: Linking Our Libraries, to hear more about the work Jason does in his school library.

Thanks so much for joining us this week for the book group! It’s always better when you are here with us.

Be sure you are subscribed to this podcast to get every episode, genre, and book suggestions dropped right into your favorite app. And you can check out our shownotes for each episode to get all the info we discussed, along with the links to more resources. Every episode we have created is on our website: cmle.org.

Join us next week for more genre discussions!