True or False: Sir Ian Wilmot invented the hovercraft in the 1950s.

The hovercraft is a fascinating invention, but Sir Ian Wilmut had nothing to do with it. You might be confusing him with another famous British scientist. Sir Ian Wilmut was actually a leading embryologist and is best known for leading the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. This was a huge breakthrough in genetic engineering. The real inventor of the hovercraft was Sir Christopher Cockerell. He came up with the idea in the 1950s, and the first hovercraft was tested in 1959. Cockerell received a patent for his invention and was later knighted for his contributions to engineering. So, while both men are important figures in British science and innovation, their fields of expertise were very different.