Thus, by the late 1990s, while the need for 'high-calibre' research staff with 'intimate knowledge' of users and their potential needs was well recognized by potential employers, the term 'boffin' was no longer used in its original sense, lest it conjure up images of 'mad scientists'.Eds. Robert Bud and Philip Gummett, Cold War Hot Science, Harwood, 1999
