The Nature of Invention
It may sound obvious, but every single thing we encounter in everyday life had to be invented: TV, phones, furniture, trains, planes, and automobiles. Behind every invention is a fascinating story. Broadcaster and author Britt Wray wants to meet inventors to find out what inspires them and what makes them tick. What drives these creative minds to launch us into the future?
It may sound obvious, but every single thing we encounter in everyday life had to be invented: TV, phones, furniture, trains, planes, and automobiles. Behind every invention is a fascinating story. Broadcaster and author Britt Wray wants to meet inventors to find out what inspires them and what makes them tick. What drives these creative minds to launch us into the future?
Related Articles
View AllLeonardo da Vinci’s Inventive Arsenal
Leonardo da Vinci owes his fame to paintings, but warring city-states encouraged him to come up with creative uses for gunpowder. From a multi-shot cannon to a massive ballista,…
The Metaphorical Language of Science
Words shape how we think and view the world. We often believe the words we’ve inherited from scientific achievements are accurate pictures of how things are, but a lot of…
5 Ways the Tech Revolution Has Changed Society
You probably don’t think once, let alone twice, about checking your email while waiting in line or backing up a file in the cloud. But from the transistor to the smartphone,…
Guglielmo Marconi and the Dawn of Wireless Communications
Before Marconi brought his inventive genius to the problem, communication over long distances was tethered to wires strung from one point to another. His wireless telegraphy…
Who Was George Westinghouse? More than Just Thomas Edison’s Arch-Rival
George Westinghouse was Thomas Alva Edison’s relentless competitor in the battle to establish a universal standard for transmission of electricity to the streets, homes, and…
Modern Tech Cracks Secrets of Roman Concrete, the Voynich Codex, and the Antikythera Device
Over the ages, great discoveries and useful instruments have been lost and forgotten. There are persistent mysteries in the archeological record and medieval texts that…
Tools of the Neolithic Era: Inventing a New Age
The Neolithic Era was the final stage of technological development for prehistoric humans. Read more about Neolithic tools from this study of Neolithic history.
From Chinese Origins to Gutenberg's Bible: How the Invention of the Printing Press Changed the World
Most of us associate the name Johannes Gutenberg with the invention of the printing press, but the first models appeared hundreds of years before, in China. Gutenberg improved…
'A War of Currents': The Real Story of Thomas Edison and the Invention of the Electric Chair
A battle of titans named Edison and Westinghouse sparked the invention of the supposedly humane electric chair. But how did Nikola Tesla’s promising discovery – alternating…
Ancient Tech: The Amazing Inventions of Hero of Alexandria
Our great age of technology and scientific advancement is hardly the first. In ancient Alexandria, one great mind of that era, Hero, is responsible for several amazing mechanical…