This is not a slam on doctors or engineers. But their task is to achieve a result, the scientist seeks an understanding. There is a big difference, which is often obscured by the fact that many of their tools and techniques overlap, and they draw on each other's work.

Engineers and doctors have been doing useful work, treating diseases and injuries as well as building and fixing things, for centuries, long before any scientific knowledge or even consensus existed about the systems they worked on.

Scientists periodically throw out all their old ideas and explanations and replace them with new ones that work better. The fact the old ones sometimes gave excellent results too is conveniently overlooked. Physics has been completely overhauled in the lifetime of those alive today(Classical vs Modern). So has geology, biology, and astronomy (plate tectonics, DNA, the Big Bang), all within MY lifetime.

The smart man bets on scientific method, but the Morgellon affair teaches us a lot is left to be learned, not just pure facts, but in methodology and philosophy, too.

If physics and chemistry aren't settled yet, then its not likely the social and behavioral sciences are all wrapped up either. Think Rupert Sheldrake, Halton Arp, Julian Jaynes. There is a lot of unfinished business, and you never know you've been lost up a blind alley until after you've found your way out.

Have you read Eco's Foucalt's Pendulum?