Question: If you had access to every engineering lab in the world but could only work in one where would you work and why

Ivan Merrick answered on 11 Mar 2019:

Tough question this. I would like to work in so many But I think the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK would be my choice. It has been involved is so many important discoveries, I am very interested in the history of World War 2 (1939-1945) particularly the role scientists and engineers played in helping the allies win the war against Germany. The NPL was run by a man called Robert Watson-Watt and when he saw the threat of the build up of the German Air Force from 1933-1939 he understood that Britain needed some method of detecting the aircraft while they were 100 miles or so away from Britain. Britain had very few aircraft compared to Germany and what Watson-Watt and his team developed is what we now call radar. Using this they were able to detect from where and how many German aircraft were heading to Britain and the head of the British Airforce, Sir Hugh Dowding, was able to send is limited number of aircraft up to fight off the German attacks. Radar worked so well that the Germans gave up their daylight attacks after a famous battle called the Battle of Britain.