We often have a tendency to assume that the relationship between science and engineering is one of mostly unidirectional influence; scientists/natural philosophers come up with theoretical knowledge, and then engineers take it and apply that knowledge to manipulate objects in the world. Is this really usually the case, or is it more common than we think for engineers or inventors to create something that inexplicably works, leaving the scientists to play catch up in finding out why it works?
The classic study of this is by Latour and Woolgar. They argue, from anthropological observation of a science lab, that the tools scientists use shape the questions they ask just as much as their questions shape their tools. Rather than thinking of one influencing the other (science giving ideas to eingineers, or engineers giving problems to scientists to explain), it's better to think of science and technology as related projects which influence each other through constant exchanges that are always going both ways.