THE MASTER OF DISASTER
\nBy Alex Prud’homme
\nMen’s Journal, February 2013
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\nBob Bea, the nation\u2019s foremost forensic engineer,\u00a0is the guy to call when levees break or oil rigs\u00a0explode \u2014 to sift through the wreckage, assign\u00a0blame, and try to prevent the same mistakes again.\u00a0(He\u2019s still working on that part.)
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\nR<\/b>obert Bea\u2019s large, beige, seemingly\u00a0bland office in the engineering building\u00a0at the University of California at\u00a0Berkeley is revealed, upon close inspection,\u00a0to be a cabinet of wonders. Perched on top of\u00a0neat filing cabinets and tucked into corners\u00a0are mysterious artifacts from around the\u00a0world: a massive drill bit, a chunk of rusted\u00a0metal, a model of an oil platform, a cluster\u00a0of giant barnacles, strands of Mardi Gras\u00a0beads, a beer bottle, and other totems. Each\u00a0of them has a story to tell. That drill bit? It\u00a0came from an oil rig that sank off the coast\u00a0of Australia, causing a $1 billion disaster.\u00a0The rusted metal? It\u2019s a piece of an oil tanker\u00a0that supposedly \u201ccould not rust.\u201d The clutch\u00a0of barnacles? From the Arctic seabed, where\u00a0the oil industry once claimed, \u201cThere is no\u00a0life.\u201d Bea (pronounced \u201cbee\u201d) keeps these\u00a0mementos as teaching aids and to prompt\u00a0discussion about the role of human fallibility\u00a0in mishaps \u2014 a subject rarely discussed in\u00a0engineering circles, yet one that he believes\u00a0is just as important as mechanical failure\u00a0or software glitches.
\n\u201cNever let a good disaster go to waste\u201d is\u00a0Bea\u2019s mantra ….
\nFor the rest of this story, please go to your nearest newsstand and buy the Feb 2013 issue of Men’s Journal — then let me know what you think of it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE MASTER OF DISASTER By Alex Prud’homme Men’s Journal, February 2013 Bob Bea, the nation\u2019s foremost forensic engineer,\u00a0is the guy to call when levees break or oil rigs\u00a0explode \u2014 to sift through the wreckage, assign\u00a0blame, and try to prevent the same mistakes again.\u00a0(He\u2019s still working on that part.) Robert Bea\u2019s large, beige, seemingly\u00a0bland…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,14,4],"tags":[27,33,36,41,46,51,72],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n