How Test Engineers Decide What Counts as Good Enough

Test engineers stage reality, sometimes by extreme means, to make sure airplanes don't fall apart, children can't open pill bottles, and bears won't break into coolers. Even the best models are little match for the incomprehensibly dynamic complexity of the universe. A run-in with human snacks transformed Kobuk the Destroyer's mother into a "problem bear." A native of the Alaskan wilderness, the grizzly was possibly ruined by a dumpster or a cache of campsite refuse, teaching her that food was simply there for the taking--a rewarding hack for the perennial dinnertime problem. This never ends well, and it was only a matter of time before her taste for free-range chickens got her killed by a rancher. If she was the problem, the two cubs she left behind were recruited to help with the solution. The bear-resistant container was invented to arrest the inadvertent cultivation of problem bears. A new cooler or compost bin cannot be marketed as bear-resistant until bears have been given a fair chance to break into it and fail. The gold standard is set by a consortium called the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, or I.G.B.C.