Last year, for example, management asked Brian Martinick, a 43-year-old machinist, for advice on replacing a metal-turning lathe used to repair equipment.

The metal-turning lathe, first invented (believe it or not) to mass-produce screws in the 1700's, allowed the manufacture of all kinds of precisely sized parts for everything from steam engines to chronometers.

Instead of the dovetailed ways used on the tool slide of a metal-turning lathe, the ways typically float on air bearings, and the position of the tool is measured by optical interferometry to achieve the necessary standard of precision for optical work.

The young Andrew came into the problem through mechanics; a handy boy, with a well-loved Meccano set and a metal-turning lathe on which he made his own apparatus long into adulthood, he found that the only sort of life science that drew him was physiology, or how bodies worked.