Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This madcap adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations. Who invented the wheel? Who told the first joke? Who drank the first beer? Who was the murderer in the first murder mystery, who was the first surgeon, who sparked the first fire--and most critically, who was the first to...
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (The MIT Press)
by Lillian Hoddeson and Peter Garrett
The first full-length biography of a brilliant, self-taught inventor whose innovations in information and energy technology continue to shape our world.The Economist called Stanford R. Ovshinsky (1922–2012) “the Edison of our age,” but this apt comparison doesn't capture the full range of his achievements. As an independent, self-educated inventor, Ovshinsky not only created many important devices but also made fundamental discoveries in materials science. This book offers the first full-length...
The companion book to an upcoming museum exhibition of the same name, Places of Invention seeks to answer timely questions about the nature of invention and innovation: What is it about some places that sparks invention and innovation? Is it simply being at the right place at the right time, or is it more than that? How does “place”—whether physical, social, or cultural—support, constrain, and shape innovation? Why does invention flourish in one spot but struggle in another, even very similar l...
Does the thought of a rainy weekend indoors fill you with dread?Are you tired of your living room wall being one crayon scribble away from a mural?Have you ever contemplated moving to a bigger house simply to accommodate for your child's ever expanding collection of baby grows? Whether you're a first-time parent, or a seasoned pro, you'll know that parenting is a job full of challenges, and with no time off for good behaviour. But take heart and dive into Life Hacks for Parents, your handy guide...
Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony Popularly Explained
by Walter Wentworth Massie
During the Second World War, an American behavioural psychologist working with pigeons discovered that the birds could be trained to recognise an object and to peck at an image of it; when loaded into the nose-cone of a missile, these pecks could be translated into adjustments to the guidance fins, steering the projectile to its target. Pigeon-Guided Missiles reveals this and other fascinating tales of daring plans from history destined to change the world we live in, yet which ended in failure,...
The author explores the origins of the eighteenth-century chemical revolution as it centers on Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier's earliest work on combustion. He shows that the main lines of Lavoisier's theory—including his theory of a heat-fluid, caloric—were elaborated well before his discovery of the role played by oxygen. Contrary to the opinion prevailing at that time, Lavoisier suspected, and demonstrated by experiment, that common air, or some portion of it, combines with substances when they ar...
History will always remember the Edisons, Einsteins and Darwins. But what about the others with similarly revolutionary ideas, but who plummeted into oblivion? Here are the extraordinary, and inspirational, lives of thirteen 'losers' who achieved great heights in their lifetimes only to then meet crushing defeats. There is the man who discovered N-rays only to be eclipsed by X-rays; the 'Fenian Ram', a submarine built by Irish immigrants in Mahattan to cross the Atriantic and sink the British fl...