And that mutualising the Rock flunked that test.

BBC: Will Northern Rock be re-mutualised?

It was Mr Brown who, at the start of his decade-long tenure as chancellor, insisted on stripping the Bank of England of its role in supervising banks, a reform that failed its first real test with Northern Rock.

ECONOMIST: Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown

Already Finnish nuclear utility Posiva is test-drilling the rock beneath Olkiluoto island with the idea of interring waste one-third of a mile down.

FORBES: The Big Dig

But as knowledge of how to control the risks of flying accumulated as checklists and flight simulators became more prevalent and sophisticated the danger diminished, values of safety and conscientiousness prevailed, and the rock-star status of the test pilots was gone.

NEWYORKER: The Checklist

Put to the test last year, the superhard coating was applied to plates on a 20-ton mining rock-crusher and reduced jagged boulders to pebbles for 48 hours before wearing out.

FORBES: Steely Dan