Inventive geniuses who changed the world : fifty -three great British scientists and engineers and five centuries of innovation

This book describes the life and times of fifty-three great British scientists and engineers – male and female inventive geniuses who changed the world, improving the lives of mankind, and propelling humanity forward. Their stories abound with personal ingenuity, brilliance and scientific or engineering wizardry, and with the ambition to satisfy fundamental human needs. The author aspires to set these individual achievements in the socio-political context of their place in history, sometimes embracing the activities of others to round off the story and scientific contribution. Avoiding overly technical language, he nonetheless succeeds in making complex theories and technologies more comprehensible and accessible to a lay audience. This book is a must for all those interested in the prehistory and history of the steam engine, transport, communication technology, public health services, and many topics from the natural sciences. Many of the inventions described in its pages have helped shape the modern world. Preface Scope How Were These Fifty-Three Eminent British Scientists and Engineers Chosen? Sources of Information Acknowledgements Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Background to the Manuscript 1.2 National and Personal Attributes of, and Characteristics for, Scientific and Engineering Greatness 1.3 Dissemination of Information and the Importance of Education 1.4 Technological Advances; The Victorian Era and Empire 2 “Revolutions”—Scientific, Agricultural and Industrial 2.1 Revolutionary Change 2.2 The World’s Scientific Revolution 2.3 Britain’s 2nd Agricultural Revolution as a Precursor to Its Industrial Revolution 2.4 Birthplace of the First Industrial Revolution—Why did it Occur? Why did Occur When it did? Why did it Occur in Great Britain Before Other Nations? 2.5 Why Was Britain So Receptive and Responsive to the Application of Science, Technology and Engineering in Industry? 3 The Steam Age—Evolution of Steam Engines and the 1st Steam Locomotive 3.1 Précis. The Age of Steam Power 3.2 Thomas Savery (C. 1650–1715)—1st Generation Steam Engine with No Moving Parts 3.3 Thomas Newcomen (1663–1729) Atmospheric, 2nd Generation Steam Engine and Pump Shaft 3.4 James Watt (1736–1819)—Mechanical Engineer, Inventor, and Key Figure in the Industrial Revolution. More Efficient and Versatile, 3rd Generation Steam Engines 3.5 Richard Trevithick (1771–1833)—High-Pressure, 4th Generation Steam Engine and ‘Father’ of the Steam Locomotive 4 Advances in Forms of Transport—Steam Locomotives, Cycle Tyres, Oceanic Liners, and Jet Aircraft. Transport Infrastructure—Canals, Roads, and Commercial Railways 4.1 Précis. The Canal Age, the Railway Age, Oceanic Travel and the Jet Age 4.2 James Brindley (1716–1772)—Canal Engineer and Builder. The ‘Canal Age’ 4.2.1 Background and Early Life 4.2.2 Navigable, Inland Waterways, Including Fossdyke and Sankey Brook. French Artificial Canals 4.2.3 The Bridgewater Canal and Brindley’s Input to the Golden Age of Canals. Deaths of Brindley (1772) and the Duke of Bridgewater (1803) 4.2.4 Brindley’s Input to Other Canal Projects 4.2.5 Trent and Mersey Canal (T&M). Wedgewood Pottery 4.2.6 Canal Mania 4.2.7 Canals in the Nineteenth Century. Competition from Railways. The Manchester Ship Canal 4.2.8 Canals in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 4.2.9 Brindley’s Legacy 4.3 John Louden McAdam (1756–1836)—Road Builder 4.4 George Stephenson (1781–1848) and Robert Stephenson FRS, HFRSE, DCL (1803–1859)—Civil and Mechanical Engineers. Refinements to Steam Locomotives and Pioneers of Steam Railways. The ‘Railway Age’ and the Electromagnetic Telegraph 4.4.1 Their Early Years 4.4.2 George Stephenson’s 1st Steam Locomotive for Freight Haulage on Privately Owned Rail Tracks 4.4.3 George and Robert Stephenson’s First Steam Locomotive for Freight and Paying Passengers. The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). Standard Gauge Rail Track 4.4.4 The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR). The Rocket Travelling Engine Built by Robert Stephenson & Co. 4.4.5 Speed of Travel vis-à-vis Horses; Railway Mania; the Flying Scotsman and Mallard; Changes to Society and GMT 4.4.6 Telegraphic Signalling 4.4.7 Their Distinctions, Decorations, and Legacy 4.5 Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859)—Mechanical and Civil Engineer; Marine Technologist 4.5.1 Family Background and Education. His Father’s Influence 4.5.2 The Thames’ Tunnel 4.5.3 The Clifton Suspension Bridge 4.5.4 The Great Western Railway (GWR) from Paddington Station, London, to Brunel’s Original Terminus at Bristol Temple Meads on Broad Gauge Track 4.5.5 Extension of the Great Western Railway (GWR): Bristol and Exeter Railway and the South Devon Railway. Brunel’s “Atmospheric” Railway and the Prince Albert Bridge 4.5.6 From Bristol to New York via Paddle Steamer, PS Great Western. Integrated First Class Travel from London to New York via a Single, Seamless Ticket 4.5.7 SS Great Britain. Iron Hull, Steam Propulsion and Screw Propeller 4.5.8 PSS Great Eastern 4.5.9 PSS Great Eastern and the Transatlantic Electric Telegraph 4.5.10 Brunel’s Personal Accidents; Fatal Illness; Character and Career Over-View; Absence of Honours and Decorations, and Final Resting Place 4.6 John Boyd Dunlop (1840–1921)—Inventor of the 1st Commercial Pneumatic, Inflatable Tyre. The Chemistry of Rubber. History of Pneumatic Tyres for Motor Cars. Rise and Fall of the Companies Named After J.B. Dunlop 4.6.1 Natural Rubber and Its Vulcanisation 4.6.2 Compound Fillers; Colourants for Tyres; Toxicological and Environmental Concerns 4.6.3 Polymers Associated with Natural and Synthetic Rubber. The Use of Petrochemicals to Manufacture Synthetic Rubbers 4.6.4 Background to John Boyd Dunlop and the Development of the Company Named After Him 4.6.5 Robert W. Thomson’s Patent 4.6.6 Monopoly from Intellectual Property Protection—Patent Acquisition and Extension. Increasing Popularity of Cycling but Dunlop’s Retirement 4.6.7 Rise and Fall of the Dunlop Company in Its Different Guises 4.7 Frank Whittle OM, KBE, CB, FRS, FRAeS (1907–1996)—Aeronautical Engineer; Inventor of the Turbojet Method of Aircraft Propulsion; Father of the Jet Age 4.7.1 Early Life, Family Circumstances and Education 4.7.2 Theory of the Sub-sonic Turbojet Engine. Concept Development of the Whittle Unit, WU 4.7.3 Air Ministry Response to Whittle’s Patent. Competition from Piston Engine Propulsion 4.7.4 The Power Jets Company. Overcoming Bureaucratic, Economic, and Technical Hurdles to Produce an Experimental Turbojet for Ground Testing 4.7.5 German Developments with Jet Engines (Strahltriebwerk) and Aircraft 4.7.6 Impending War and Its Effect on Attitudes in Britain and America to Whittle’s Pioneering Work on Turbojet Engines. Flight Engine, W.1 and the Experimental Aircraft, the Gloster Pioneer 4.7.7 Whittle’s 2nd Generation Turbojet. Involvement by the Rover Car Company and Rolls-Royce. Nationalisation of the Power Jets Co. 4.7.8 Whittle’s Life After the RAF; Tributes and Civic Honours; Emigration to the USA; Whittle’s Legacy 5 Drawbacks with Industrialization. Sanitary Revolution Offering Technologies to Improve Public Health 5.1 Précis 5.2 Background. The Liverpudlian Solution 5.3 John Harington (1561–1612)—1st Indoor Flushing Water Closet (WC) 5.4 Alexander Cumming (1733–1814)—Flush Toilet with an S-bend Outlet 5.5 Josiah George Jennings (1810–1882)—Sanitary Engineer; 1st Public Flushing Toilet 5.6 Thomas Crapper (1836–1910)—Toilet Cistern Fitted with a Ballcock 5.7 Joseph Bazalgette CB (1819–1891)—Civil Engineer; Urban Sewage System 5.7.1 Background 5.7.2 Cholera in London and Its Eradication 5.7.3 London’s Integrated Sewage System 6 17th and 18th Century Multi-disciplinary Scientists. Motion, Forces, Gravity and Light 6.1 Précis 6.2 Robert Hooke FRS (1635–1703)—Polymath 6.3 Isaac Newton PRS (1642–1727)—Polymath and One of the Greatest Physicists and Mathematicians 6.3.1 Background—Upbringing, Education, Decorations, Setbacks, and Honours 6.3.2 Light and Telescopes; Book I of Opticks 6.3.3 Contemporaneous Views on Celestial Bodies—Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton. Conflicts with Religious Leaders and Beliefs 6.3.4 The Principia (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) Books I to III 6.3.5 Book I, De motu corporum (On the Motion of Bodies) 6.3.5.1 Laws of Motion; Quantitative Foundations of Classical Mechanics 6.3.5.2 A New Form of Mathematics—The Method of Fluxions (Published Posthumously in 1736), Better Known as Infinitesimal Calculus 6.3.6 Book II, Part 2 of De motu corporum 6.3.7 Book III, De mundi systemate (On the System of the World) 6.3.7.1 Centripetal Force; Law of Universal Gravitation 6.3.7.2 Acceleration Due to Gravity (g); Mass Versus Weight 6.3.7.3 Ocean Tides; Lunar Versus Solar Tides; Spring and Neap Tides; Tidal Bores 6.3.7.4 Declination of the Sun; Relationship to Equinoxes and Solstices—Four Key Astronomical Events. Solar Noon 6.3.7.5 Effect of a Varying Axial Tilt on Seasons and Intensity of Sunshine. Reason Why Summer Season in the Southern Hemisphere is Cooler Than in the Northern Hemisphere 6.3.7.6 The Earth’s Oblateness. The Ecliptic Plane. How Precession Changes Our Alignment with the Constellations and the North Star. Significance of the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn 6.3.7.7 Zodiacal Constellations. Western Astrology Star Signs 6.3.8 Summary 6.4 Henry Cavendish FRS (1731–1810)—Natural Philosopher; Experimental and Theoretical Chemist and Physicist 6.4.1 Background 6.4.2 Cavendish’s Mimicry of Torpedo Fish; Artificially Produced Electricity. Electric Charge and Potential Difference 6.4.3 Cavendish’s Experimentation on Gaseous Substances. Phlogiston Theory 6.4.4 The Cavendish Experiment—Measurement of the Force of Gravity Between Masses in a Laboratory; Density of the Earth 6.4.5 Cavendish Laboratory and the Royal Institution 7 Natural Sciences 7.1 Précis 7.2 Robert William Boyle FRS (1627–1691)—Father of Modern Chemistry 7.3 Joseph Priestley LLD, FRS (1733–1804)—Maverick Theologian; Unitarian Minister; Natural Philosopher; Discoverer/Co-discoverer of Oxygen and Other Gases 7.4 William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FRSE (1824–1907)—Mathematical Physicist, Engineer, and Inventor. The ‘Cable Empire’ 7.4.1 Background, Education, and University Professorship 7.4.2 Electromagnetic Field. Electric Telegraph. The Cable Empire 7.4.3 Second Law of Thermodynamics; Irreversibility of Natural Processes, and the Principle of Entropy Growth 7.4.4 Absolute Zero of Temperature; Nernst’s 3rd Law of Thermodynamics 7.4.5 Adiabatic Gas Expansion via Either Decompression or ‘Throttling’. Joule–Thomson Effect 7.4.6 Thermo-electricity, Inter-convertibility of Thermal Energy and Electrical Energy: Seebeck-Effect and Peltier-Effect 7.4.7 Other Honours and Distinctions; His Resting Place 8 History of the Atom, 1803–1932 8.1 Précis 8.2 John Dalton FRS (1766–1844)—Chemist, Meteorologist and Physicist. First Modern Atomic Theory 8.3 Joseph John Thomson OM FRS (1856–1940)—Atomic Physicist 8.3.1 Background 8.3.2 Cathode Rays. Subsequent Exploitation of Moving Electrons. “Plum Pudding” Atomic Model 8.3.3 Collaboration with F Aston. Positive Ray Spectrograph. Isotopes 8.3.4 National Honours and Legacy 8.4 Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM FRS Hon FRSE (1871–1937)—Nuclear Chemist and Father of Nuclear Physics 8.4.1 Background and Education 8.4.2 Period at McGill University. Disintegration of Elements. Natural Decay of Radioactive Isotopes. α-Rays and β-Rays. Chemistry of Radioactive Substances. Half-Life. Nobel Prize 8.4.3 Period at the Victoria University of Manchester. The Gold-Foil Experiment. Rutherford’s Nuclear Model Versus Bohr’s Planetary or Solar Model 8.4.4 Mendeleev, Moseley’s Atomic Number, Chemical Periodicity, Schrödinger Model 8.4.5 Rutherford’s Period at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Nuclear Transformation of Non-radioactive Elements—Artificial Transmutation. The Proton and Neutron 8.4.6 Rutherford’s Public Decorations and Legacy 8.5 James Chadwick CH, FRS (1891–1974)—Physicist and Discoverer of the Neutron 8.6 Summary of British Advances in Our Understanding of the Structure of an Atom, 1803 to 1932 9 Life Sciences Leading to Health Care, Dental Hygiene, Disease Control, Hospital Sanitation and IVF. Great British Physicians and Nurses 9.1 Précis 9.2 William Harvey (1578–1657)—Physician, Anatomist, and Physiologist 9.3 William Addis (1734–1808)—Inventor and Mass Producer of the ‘Modern’ Toothbrush Resulting in Better Dental Hygiene 9.4 Edward Jenner FRS (1749–1823)—Immunologist; Pioneer of a ‘Safe’ Smallpox Vaccine 9.4.1 Background 9.4.2 History of the Smallpox Vaccine 9.4.3 Vaccine Developments 9.4.4 The Fight Against Coronavirus Disease 2019. SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines 9.5 Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)—Applied Statistician; Founder of Modern Nursing; Champion of Strict Sanitary Practices 9.6 Joseph Lister (1827–1912)—Surgeon, Scientist, and Pioneer of Antiseptic Surgery 9.7 Alexander Fleming FRS, FRSE, FRCS (1881–1955)—–Bacteriologist; Discoverer of the ‘Miracle Drug’, Penicillin 9.8 Patrick Christopher Steptoe CBE, FRS (1913–1988)—Obstetrician, Gynaecologist and Assisted Reproductive Technologist; ‘Joint Father’ of First Test-Tube Baby 9.9 Robert Geoffrey Edwards FRS, CBE, MAE (1925–2013) Physiologist and Assisted Reproductive Technologist; ‘Joint Father’ of First Test-Tube Baby 10 Electricity, Magnetism and Light and Their Inter-relationship. Electrolysis and Electrochemistry. Foundations for Both the ‘Mechanised Age’ (Powered by Electricity) and Radio Broadcasting 10.1 Précis 10.2 Humphry Davy 1st Baronet, PRS, MRIA, FGS (1778–1829)—Electro-Chemist and Inventor of the Davy Lamp 10.3 Michael Faraday FRS (1791–1867)—Natural Philosopher. Expert in Electrochemistry and Electromagnetism, Pioneering a Mechanised World Powered by Electricity 10.3.1 Family Background, Education, and Early Employment 10.3.2 Magnetism; Magnetic Field Lines; Magnetic Force Between Poles 10.3.3 Creation of Magnetism from Electricity. Electromagnetic Rotation (1821). Mechanical Energy Derived from Electrical Energy. Principle of an Electric Motor 10.3.4 Liquefaction of Gases in 1823. Refrigeration. 21st Century Liquid Air Battery 10.3.5 Chemistry Firsts; Syntheses of Chlorinated Hydrocarbons and His Discovery of Benzene in 1825 10.3.6 Creation of Electricity from Magnetism. Faraday’s Induction Ring (1831). Electromagnetic Induction. The Electric Transformer 10.3.7 Combining Magnetism with Mechanical Motion to Generate Electricity Continuously in the Form of an Alternating Current (1831). Magneto-Electric Induction. The 1st Alternator. Faraday’s 1st and 2nd Law of Electromagnetic Induction 10.3.8 Combining Magnetism with Continuous Mechanical Motion to Generate Electricity and a Direct Current in 1831. Magneto-Electric Induction. Faraday’s Spinning Disc and the 1st Electric Generator. Electrical Energy Derived from Kinetic Energy. Electric Power from Magnetic Power 10.3.9 Theory of Electrolytic Decomposition in 1832. Nomenclature of Electrochemical Terms 10.3.10 Faraday’s Laws of Electrolysis (1834); Electrochemical Equivalent; Faraday Constant 10.3.11 Invention (in 1836) of Faraday Cage to Offer Protection from an Induced Charge 10.3.12 Faraday Effect or Rotation; Optical Phenomenon Resulting from an Interaction Between Light and Magnets or Electric Currents (1845) 10.3.13 Diamagnetism (1845) 10.3.14 Governmental Posts. Bow Creek Experimental Lighthouse. South Foreland Lighthouse. The World’s 1st Practical Provision of Electric Power 10.3.15 Later Life, Legacy, Distinctions Accepted and Declined 10.4 James Clerk Maxwell FRS, FRSE (1831–1879)—Theoretical Physicist and Mathematician. Colour Perception; Molecular Motion in Gases and Electromagnetic Radiation 10.4.1 Background; Education and Early Career; Saturn’s Rings 10.4.2 Colour Spectrum; Colour Triangle; Perception of Colour 10.4.3 Colour Theories—Additive (RGB) Versus Subtractive (RYB and CMY). 1st Colour Photograph 10.4.4 Kinetic Theory of Gases; Maxwell–Boltzmann Distribution 10.4.5 Electromagnetic Radiation; The Wave Model; Maxwell’s Equations and the Heaviside Re-statement 10.4.6 Hertzian (Radio) Waves (1887) 10.4.7 Oliver Lodge—Almost the Father of the Radio in 1894 10.4.8 Electromagnetic Spectrum 10.4.9 Summary of Maxwell’s Hypotheses. Scientific, Technological, and Social Impacts 10.4.10 Anomalies with Maxwell’s Classical Electromagnetic Wave Theory. Blackbody Radiation; The ‘Ultraviolet Catastrophe’ and the Photo-Electric Mystery. A 20th Century Explanation Via Quantum Theory 10.4.11 Wave-Particle Duality 10.4.12 Maxwell’s Later Life and Legacy 11 Palaeontology and Evolution 11.1 Précis 11.2 Mary Anning (1799–1847)—Fossilist and Palaeontologist 11.3 Charles Robert Darwin FRS, FRGS, FLS, FZS (1809–1882)—Naturalist and Biologist 11.3.1 Background 11.3.2 Voyage on HMS Beagle 11.3.3 Developing His Theory of Evolution and the Mechanism of Natural Selection 11.3.4 Cataclysmic Events Leading to Mass Extinctions and an Evolutionary Reset 11.3.5 Survival of the Fittest 11.3.6 Similarities and Differences Between Species 11.3.7 Artificial Selection 11.3.8 Commonalities Between Plants and Animals 11.3.9 Darwin’s Accolades 12 X-ray Crystallography of Biomolecules 12.1 Précis 12.2 William Henry Bragg OM, KBE, PRS (1862–1942) and William Lawrence Bragg CH, OBE, MC, FRS (1890–1971)—X-ray Crystallographers 12.3 Dorothy May Crowfoot Hodgkin OM, FRS, HonFRSC (1910–1994)—Biochemist and Crystallographer 12.4 John Cowdery Kendrew CBE, FRS (1917–1997)—Molecular Biologist and Crystallographer 13 Nucleosides, Nucleotides, Polynucleotides (RNA and DNA) and the Genetic Code 13.1 Précis 13.2 Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd of Trumpington, OM, PRS, FRS, HonFRSE (1907–1997)—Organic Chemist 13.2.1 Background 13.2.2 Nucleosides and Nucleotides 13.2.3 Summary 13.3 Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (1916–2004)—Physicist and Molecular Biologist 13.3.1 Background 13.3.2 DNA Collaboration with J. Watson 13.3.3 Gregor Mendel 13.3.4 Heredity Information and Genetic Inheritance 13.3.5 Protein Synthesis 13.3.6 Deciphering the Genetic Code. The Triplet Hypothesis 13.3.7 Summary 13.4 Frederick Sanger OM, CH, CBE, FAA (1918–2013)—Biochemist, ‘Father’ of Genomics 13.4.1 Background 13.4.2 Sanger’s Reagent to Determine the Structure of Insulin by Amino Acid Sequencing 13.4.3 Nucleotide Sequencing 13.4.4 Accolades 14 Science of Key Building Materials—Cementitious Substances, Iron and Steel 14.1 Précis 14.2 Joseph Aspdin (1778–1855) and William Aspdin (1815–1864)—Inventors and Manufacturers of Portland Cement. The Age of Artificial Stone 14.2.1 Family Background 14.2.2 The Lime-Cycle 14.2.3 Masonry Nomenclature; Nature of Clay 14.2.4 History of Non-hydraulic Lime, Hydraulic Lime (Roman) and Portland Cement; Mortar and Concrete 14.2.5 Modern Manufacturing Process for Portland Cement. The Chemistry of Portland Cement and Concrete Derived from It. Their Carbon Footprints 14.2.6 Joseph’s Death. The Aspdin Legacy 14.3 Henry Bessemer FRS (1813–1898)—Engineer, Inventor, and Entrepreneur. The Steel Age 14.3.1 Background 14.3.2 The Iron Age; Smelting and Pig Iron 14.3.3 Cast Iron 14.3.4 Wrought (Worked) Iron and Its Use in the Construction of Transport Bridges Across the Navigable Menai Strait 14.3.5 Steel: The Bessemer Refining Process 14.3.6 Further Modifications to the Bessemer Process. Enhancements for Speciality Steels 14.3.7 Honours and Legacy 14.4 The Downside of Artificial Building Materials. The Anthropocene Epoch 15 Communication: Telephone, Computers and WWW 15.1 Précis 15.2 Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922)—Scientist, Inventor, Innovator, Phonetician and Teacher of the Deaf. 1st Telephone Patentee 15.2.1 Background 15.2.2 Morse Code and the 1st Attempts to Supersede It 15.2.3 Sound and the Transmission of Human Speech via the ‘Talking Telegraph’ 15.2.4 Key Patents and Commercialization 15.2.5 Move to Nova Scotia and New Intellectual Pursuits 15.2.6 His Passing and Legacy 15.3 Alan Mathison Turing OBE, FRS (1912–1954)—Mathematician, Computer Scientist, Cryptanalyst, Codebreaker of Enemy Signals, Father of Modern Computing 15.3.1 Turing’s Background and Education 15.3.2 Visionary Thoughts from Victorian Britons on Computer Hardware and Software 15.3.3 Other Early Notions on Computer Architecture and Operation—Postulates by Turing and von Neumann. Zuse’s Z3—The 1st Fully Automatic, Programmable Computer 15.3.4 Code Breaking Triumphs at Bletchley Park 15.3.5 Post-war Computer Hardware and Software Developed in UK 15.3.6 Turing’s Thoughts on Machine Intelligence. The Turing Test 15.3.7 Turing’s Final Years. His Legacy 15.4 Timothy John Berners-Lee OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, DFBCS (1955–)—Computer Scientist and Inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW) 15.4.1 Tim’s Early Life and Career Pre-CERN 15.4.2 Computer Science, History, and Terminology Relevant to the Internet and World Wide Web 15.4.3 Berners-Lee’s ‘enablers’ Between Computer Networks 15.4.4 Browsers and Search Engines 15.4.5 Berners-Lee’s Short- and Longer-Term Careers at CERN 15.4.6 Expansion of the WWW 15.4.7 Berners-Lee’s Departure from CERN. Collective Efforts to Improve the Web 15.4.8 WWW Warts and Thorns and How to Mitigate Them 15.4.8.1 Criminal Activities. The Deep and Dark Webs 15.4.8.2 Disinformation/Fake News. Political Ramifications. Threats to Democracy 15.4.8.3 Trolls, Cyber-Stalkers and Concerns for children’s Safety 15.4.8.4 Big Brother is Watching. The Power of Tech Giants. Pros and Cons of Censorship 15.4.8.5 Accountability of Tech Behemoths. Centralisation of Data 15.4.8.6 Berners-Lee’s Action Plan. Constitutionalizing Big Tech. A Web Magna Carta 15.4.9 Summary 16 Solving Crime Via Forensic Science 16.1 Précis 16.2 Alec John Jeffreys CH KBE FRS MAE (1950)—Geneticist and Forensic Scientist; Father of Human and Animal DNA Fingerprinting and Profiling 16.2.1 Background 16.2.2 DNA Genetic Fingerprinting 16.2.3 DNA Profiling 16.2.4 Decorations and Awards 16.3 Lorna Anne Dawson CBE, FRSE, FISS, FRSA, CSci (1958–)—Forensic Geologist; Soil Sleuth 16.3.1 Background 16.3.2 James Hutton Research Institute 16.3.3 Illustrative Criminal Investigations 16.3.4 Other Interests and Awards 17 Looking Forward to Challenges and Opportunities 17.1 Will Our Present Educational System Engender Future Innovative Geniuses? 17.2 Will Society Be Supportive of Exciting Inventions, Current or Potential? 17.3 How to Overcome Resistance to Change, Drive Innovation, Accelerate Commercialisation and the Safe Adoption of New Technologies? Appendix A: Technical Comparison of Brunel’s Great Oceanic Steamships Appendix B: Some Key Milestones in the History of Vulcanised and Synthetic Rubber Pneumatic Tyres Appendix C: Chronicle of Early British (German and American) Jet Engines. Frank Whittle’s Engine Lineage Appendix D: Key Properties of, and Conditions for, the Formation of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) Appendix E: Biological and Global Consequences of Exposure to Photons Index