Push until it breaks: engineering is stronger when we know its limits.

Nat Commun · 2026

other · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Engineering and applied science papers too often stop at what succeeds. We ask authors to push their assumptions, methods, models, or devices until they falter, and to report where and why they break. Disclosed limitations are a mark of rigour, not a liability at review: they show the field where the next advance will have to come from.