When you think of ancient Greece, you probably picture philosophers and marble temples, but the Greeks were also master engineers. In this roundup we present 10 amazing examples of their inventive spirit, ranging from celestial calculators to early steam engines, and we’ll see how these inventions still echo in modern technology.

10 Amazing Examples of Ancient Greek Ingenuity

10 The Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism is an astonishing analog computer recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Greece in 1901. Crafted sometime between 205 BC and 60 BC, this bronze marvel was designed to track the heavens, featuring a clock‑like face with seven hands that recorded planetary motions, lunar phases, calendar cycles, and even eclipses of both the Moon and the Sun.

Its discovery turned scholarly assumptions upside down when researchers finally identified the device in 2006, revealing a suite of interlocking gears of unprecedented precision. The mechanism proved that ancient Greek artisans could achieve a level of mechanical exactness once thought impossible, and some historians even speculate that an even older version existed, as the Roman writer Cicero mentioned Archimedes building a similar instrument in the third century BC.

Because only fragments survived, many aspects remain a mystery—especially how the gears drove the planetary pointers, a task that would have required intricate gearing to accommodate the varying paths of the celestial bodies.

9 The Diolkos

The bustling port city of Corinth was a hub of maritime commerce in antiquity, witnessing countless ships each day. Situated near the narrowest stretch of the Peloponnese, the city could dramatically cut travel time if vessels could bypass the lengthy detour around the peninsula.

Enter the Diolkos, erected around the fifth century BC—a specialized portage road that let ships be hauled overland, sparing them the arduous circumnavigation. Early scholars believed it served large cargo ships, but modern consensus suggests the pathway was too narrow for such vessels, which explains why the Romans later dug the Corinthian Canal in AD 67.

Nevertheless, the Diolkos likely provided a swift, economical means to shift smaller craft and military boats between the Aegean and Ionian seas, and it may have been favored by wealthy Greeks who wished to whisk their private vessels across the Isthmus with minimal delay.

8 Philo’s Gimbal

The gimbal, a device we now associate with stabilizing camera rigs, was first invented by Philo of Byzantium around 200 BC. He crafted it as an inkwell that would never spill, using concentric rings that kept the central ink container upright no matter how the outer frame was tilted.

Inside, the ink sat in a central vessel, while surrounding circles acted as a perpetual support system, ensuring the liquid remained level. The outer frame featured numerous holes for dipping a pen, allowing a writer to flip the inkwell or accidentally knock it over without losing a drop of ink.

Later centuries saw the gimbal become essential for navigation, stabilizing compasses on rocking ships so that the magnetic needle could reliably point north regardless of the vessel’s motion.

7 Kleroterion

Even though ancient Athenian democracy might look primitive to modern eyes, the Greeks devised a clever randomization device to keep juries free from bribery or undue influence—a mechanism known as the kleroterion.

The kleroterion functioned like a massive slot machine, equipped with funnels, a crank, a hole, and roughly 500 tiny slits. When a trial required a jury, each citizen presented a small bronze or wooden token called a pinakion, which was inserted into the slits. An official then poured a handful of black and white balls into the upper funnels and turned the crank; each ball that emerged determined the fate of a row of tokens. A black ball meant that entire row was dismissed, while a white ball allowed those jurors to serve. This process continued row by row until the jury was fully assembled, making it impossible to predict who would be chosen and thus safeguarding the trial from manipulation.

6 Aeolipile

The aeolipile, believed to be the world’s first steam engine, dates back to the first century AD—over a millennium before steam power became a cornerstone of industry.

Heron of Alexandria invented this device, though he never intended it as a practical engine. Instead, he used it to illustrate the principles of pneumatics, probably as a teaching aid or a curiosity to intrigue visitors.The apparatus consists of a hollow sphere mounted on two stationary tubes that serve as axes. Steam generated in a cauldron below the sphere enters through these tubes; as the steam fills the sphere, it escapes via one or two side‑oriented nozzles. The thrust from the escaping steam causes the sphere to spin, creating a mesmerizing visual demonstration of reactive motion.

5 Crane (And Archimedes’s Claw)

The Greeks pioneered the crane around 500 BC, a straightforward wooden hoist‑and‑pulley system that made the construction of tall, robust structures far more feasible. While the Romans later refined and spread the technology throughout Europe, the Greeks themselves were capable of building sophisticated crane‑like machines, as demonstrated by Archimedes’s Claw.

Archimedes’s Claw, erected in Syracuse before the Roman siege of 214 BC, was essentially a giant crane capable of gripping and lifting enemy ships out of the water, causing them to capsize. Mounted near the city’s sea walls, the device acted as a defensive weapon, preventing Roman vessels from approaching the shore.

According to Plutarch, the sight of the claw terrified the besieging Romans, who felt as though they were battling divine forces. The mere presence of such a mechanical marvel forced the Romans to abandon their naval assault in favor of a protracted land siege.

4 Tower Of The Winds

Constructed around 50 BC, the Tower of the Winds in Athens is widely regarded as the world’s first meteorological station and arguably the earliest clock tower. Crowned with a weather‑vane that displayed wind direction, the octagonal tower featured a massive sundial on its exterior and a water clock within, allowing it to keep time even on overcast days.

The tower’s impressive height and its prominent location on the Roman Agora suggest it functioned much like a modern clock tower, serving both practical and symbolic purposes. The Greeks themselves referred to it as the Horologion, literally “timepiece.”

Remarkably, the structure still stands today, largely thanks to careful restoration. Its design has inspired architects across the centuries, and smaller replicas can be found throughout Europe.

3 Showers Of Pergamum

The Greeks are best known for their love of athletic competition, epitomized by the Olympic Games, yet few realize they also enjoyed sophisticated bathing facilities. Excavations at a second‑century BC gymnasium in Pergamum revealed a remarkable shower system.

This system comprised seven bathing units, each receiving water from an overhead mains that poured directly onto the users. The presence of such a complex arrangement indicates that the city’s rulers invested heavily in public amenities to boost prestige, especially given Pergamum’s status as a cultural hub with a famed library rivaling Alexandria’s.

Archaeologists also note that a fourth‑century BC vase depicts a similar shower setup, suggesting that Greeks had been employing communal showers for at least a century before the Pergamum installation. The vase even shows individual cubicles and hanging rails for personal belongings.

2 Archimedes’s Screw

Archimedes is commonly credited with inventing the Archimedes screw, a device still employed today to lift water to higher elevations with minimal energy expenditure. The ancient Greek version was powered by human treaders or slaves, whereas the later crank‑operated model emerged in medieval Germany.

Some scholars argue that the screw may have pre‑dated Archimedes, pointing to accounts that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon—built around 600 BC—were irrigated using similar devices. However, the earliest mention of such a mechanism comes from Strabo, writing six centuries later, long after Archimedes’s era, suggesting he may have retroactively applied his name to an older concept.

Regardless of its origins, the screw became widely used during Archimedes’s lifetime, serving Greek and later Roman engineers for irrigation, drainage, and other hydraulic tasks.

1 Heron’s Fountain

Another ingenious creation by Heron of Alexandria, Heron’s fountain demonstrates the principles of hydraulics and pneumatics by producing a self‑sustaining jet of water without any external power source.

The fountain consists of three stacked components: an open bowl, a sealed water‑filled container, and an airtight air‑filled container. Water poured into the bowl travels down a pipe into the air chamber, where it compresses the trapped air. This pressurized air then forces water from the lower container up a second pipe, ejecting it back into the bowl and creating a continuous cycle of pressure and flow.

Although not a practical device for everyday use, Heron’s fountain showcases the ancient Greeks’ deep grasp of fluid dynamics, predating the scientific revolution by over a millennium. It remains a popular demonstration in physics classrooms worldwide, illustrating how cleverly arranged vessels can generate perpetual‑looking motion.

When you hear “GMO,” you probably picture high‑tech labs, but the truth is that 10 foods exist today because our ancestors were the original gene‑hackers, reshaping wild plants into the tasty staples we love.

How 10 Foods Exist Through Millennia of Selection

10 Almonds

The almonds on supermarket shelves are a domesticated offshoot of several wild almond species that were bitter, thorny, and loaded with cyanogenic compounds. In their natural state, these trees produced a sugary molecule that, when combined with a specific enzyme, released lethal cyanide whenever the edible parts were chewed.

Early farmers repeatedly crossed the sweetest, least toxic individuals, gradually eliminating the cyanide‑producing trait. The breakthrough came from a dominant mutation that stopped cyanide synthesis altogether, allowing the nut to become a safe, delicious snack—a remarkable achievement considering a handful of the wild variety could be fatal.

9 Watermelon

Modern watermelons are the product of thousands of years of intentional breeding, beginning with Sub‑Saharan African farmers who selected larger, more colorful fruits. As the fruit traveled to Asia and Europe, growers amplified its fleshiness, sweetness, and size.

Wild relatives were tiny, seed‑packed berries weighing barely 80 g. Today’s varieties are 91.5 % water, tipping the scales at 2–8 kg and boasting a 1,680‑fold increase in volume. The iconic scarlet hue comes from a human‑driven boost in lycopene production, a pigment that didn’t dominate the wild forms.

Genomic studies reveal that domestication also trimmed the plant’s natural disease resistance, prompting modern scientists to re‑engineer the genome to restore and even enhance immunity.

8 Broccoli, Cauliflower, And Other Cultivars

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, collards, and kale share a common ancestor: the wild mustard plant Brassica oleracea. In nature, this species sports broad leaves and modest yellow flower clusters. By tweaking the genes that govern growth patterns, humans fashioned a suite of vegetables with dramatically different edible parts.

Broccoli’s dense cluster of unopened buds evolved from an expanded flower head, while cauliflower’s white “curd” is a mass of sterile, undifferentiated cells. Romanesco broccoli pushes the envelope further, forming a mesmerizing logarithmic spiral of miniature buds within a single head.

7 Bananas

Bananas look tailor‑made for primates—soft, seedless, and easy to grip—but their wild ancestors were tiny, fibrous fruits riddled with large, inedible seeds. Occasionally, a natural mutation produced a seedless variant, and early peoples began cultivating that trait.

For at least 6,500 years, humans have selected and propagated these seedless lines, giving us the sweet, creamy bunches we know today. Ironically, the very uniformity that makes modern bananas convenient also renders them vulnerable to disease, prompting ongoing breeding efforts to re‑introduce diversity.

6 Corn

The ancestor of today’s corn is a modest grass called teosinte, native to Mesoamerica. Around 10,000 years ago, early farmers began selecting plants with larger kernels and fewer branches, gradually reshaping the species into a high‑yield staple.

Archaeological layers show a sudden appearance of these plump, starchy ears, a mystery only solved through modern genetic analysis. The key domestication change suppressed the plant’s natural tendency to produce multiple stalks, concentrating growth into a few massive ears.

Surprisingly, only about five genes differentiate ancient teosinte from modern corn, underscoring how a handful of genetic tweaks can produce a dramatic transformation.

5 Pumpkins

Pumpkins, squash, and other gourds belong to the genus Cucurbita, a group domesticated in the Americas at least 7,000 years ago. The earliest forms were tiny, bitter, and seed‑poor, hardly the festive orange behemoths we picture today.

Early cultivators first used these hard‑shelled fruits as containers, later breeding them for larger size, more seeds, and milder flesh. By about 14,000 years ago, wild pumpkins were rich in cucurbitacins—the bitterest compounds known—yet human selection gradually tamed them into the versatile food and décor items we cherish.

4 Strawberries

The strawberries we bite into today are a relatively recent invention. Tiny wild berries dotted the British Isles during the Ice Age, but the garden strawberry only emerged in the mid‑1700s after centuries of cross‑breeding.

French engineer‑mathematician Amedée‑François Frézier introduced a larger South‑American wild strawberry to Europe while mapping Chile for Louis XIV. Decades of hybridization with American varieties yielded a fruit with bigger size and richer flavor.

By 1759, the “pine” strawberry had become commercially important, and a chance hybridization in 1806 finally produced the gigantic, sweet strawberry that dominates markets today.

3 Avocados

Ancient avocado relatives resembled hard‑shelled nuts rather than the buttery fruit we love. Wild specimens were tiny—just a few inches across—with gritty flesh and a massive pit that occupied almost the entire interior.

For centuries, the avocado held a sacred status among Mesoamerican peoples, who cultivated it in protected groves near burial sites. These early gardens preserved the plant but left its fundamental form largely unchanged until modern breeding softened the texture and enlarged the edible portion.

2 Coffee

While coffee’s wild ancestors are African shrubs, the bean’s modern diversity stems from human‑driven selection beginning in the 1600s in India. Today, dozens of cultivars exist, each tailored to specific taste profiles—from extra‑bitter to buttery, caffeine‑free to frost‑resistant.

There are roughly ten distinct coffee species, all descending from ancient Arabica hybrids of mysterious lineage. Whether grown for a smooth latte or a bold espresso, each variety reflects centuries of intentional breeding to satisfy ever‑evolving palates.

1 Wheat

Wheat’s story begins before recorded history, when early humans shifted from nomadic hunting to settled agriculture. This staple became the cornerstone of civilization, prompting communities to cluster around fertile fields.

Initial foragers gathered stray wild‑grass seeds, but soon they began selecting plants that produced larger, more nutritious seeds. The pivotal genetic tweak was “indehiscence,” a mutation that stopped seed pods from shattering, allowing harvesters to collect whole heads of grain without losing kernels to the wind.

The first genetically engineered organism was created in 1973. That was just bacteria and not something that most everyday people would be excited about, but it set a precedent. Genetic engineering has grown in leaps and bounds since then, usually for the benefit of mankind. Scientific illiteracy and propaganda have made people suspicious of GMOs and now companies proudly proclaim their products aren’t GMO even when a third of all Nobel science laureates have pleaded with governments to make use of them because GMO crops could save literally millions of lives every year. 

So what’s holding us back? It could be these somewhat more bizarre uses of genetic engineering technology. 

10. Bitcoin Mice

When we say plans for genetic engineering, keep in mind that doesn’t necessarily mean execution. No one has done what we’re about to describe yet. They just had the idea. And what idea is that? To encode Bitcoin into the DNA of a mouse. 

The group behind the plan is actually just two guys and they don’t have funding, so don’t expect to see any high value crypto mice on the market anytime soon. The plan, however, is interesting, if nothing else.

The idea here is to store Bitcoin in a cold wallet like anyone might with their cryptocurrency. Then a digital key can be generated, which is also standard. However, things take a left turn at this point. The group’s plan would be to enlist the aid of a genetics firm to translate that key into a genetic ATGC sequence that can be written on DNA. That can then be inserted into a mouse so that a baby mouse can be born with the key encoded in its DNA. The genetics of the mouse will open the wallet and give access to the cryptocurrency therein. 

According to BitMouseDAO, the group that conjured up the idea, the mouse wouldn’t be harmed. And the whole idea is more of an art project than a way to manipulate currency or how it’s used. But for added value, an image of the mouse as an NFT could also be included. 

9. Muscle Dogs

Most genetic engineering is done in a fairly subdued way. One of the most famous cases involved making a strain of rice that was golden yellow and packed with vitamin A that could have saved millions of lives. By and large, yellow rice doesn’t look all that crazy though, and so the rice isn’t particularly shocking in terms of appearances. For that kind of genetic engineering, you need to look at Chinese muscle dogs. 

Researchers edited out a certain gene in the dogs so that they’d develop to be more muscular. In fact, they have twice the muscle mass of normal dogs. And while that sounds like some real mad scientist stuff, it’s arguably for a beneficial purpose.

Dog anatomy and human anatomy are not all that dissimilar in some regards. Researchers were looking into how to prevent human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s, the kinds of conditions that lead to the wasting away of muscle. That said, the possibility of breeding dogs specifically with this mutation also exists which could make them more powerful hunters or runners. And because the mutation works the same in humans, the specific creation of more powerful human athletes could potentially also be a result. 

8. Radiation Cats

The world at large is against genetically modifying things as simple as fruits and vegetables, so you can imagine the uproar if someone started genetically modifying cars, the beloved spokes animals of the internet itself. The idea has been proposed, however, and in the most sci-fi way imaginable.

One of the biggest drawbacks to our current use of nuclear power is the waste it produces. Nuclear waste is very radioactive and dangerous and is going to remain that way for generations. The people who have to deal with these problems have pondered what we can do to save not just people today from radiation, but future people.

The possibility exists that in 10,000 years or so, any language spoken today will be lost. Any knowledge of our nuclear waste storage facilities could be equally lost. How do you warn the people of tomorrow? Radiation cats.

The idea was proposed to create genetically modified cats that would change color when exposed to radiation. That way, in the future, our ancestors will be able to see a visual sign of danger. Presumably the story of what a radiation cat was would somehow be passed down generationally to make the phenomenon something more than a cool trick. 

7. Anti-Cancer Beer

Have you ever heard that drinking red wine can be good for you? This benefit was attributed to a compound found in red grape skins called resveratrol. Resveratrol was shown to be an antioxidant in lab conditions. However, its link to cancer prevention in humans was never really established. That didn’t stop a lot of media stories about the potential after the lab link was established. Enough that some people wanted to look into genetically engineering beer to also have resveratrol in it. 

A team from Rice University was cooking up a plan to use resveratrol enriched yeast to brew beer back in 2008. They even entered the beer in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition that year and won the gold medal. Most of the students involved in the project weren’t even old enough to legally drink the beer that they were creating. 

6. Dinosaur Snout Chickens

When was the first time you heard that chickens are actually dinosaurs? This was a popular headline back in 2015. But the real link started making the media rounds back in 2007. So we’ve all had a good bit of time to adjust to the idea that chickens and dinosaurs are pretty closely related. 

Science took things one step further in 2017 when they decided to see if they could turn a chicken back into a dinosaur. A little genetic engineering was needed to determine how a dinosaur face evolved into a beak, and then efforts were put into switching those genes off again so that a beak could turn back into a dinosaur snout. Research had been going for some years towards this goal, and a team at Yale had altered chicken embryos to basically reverse engineer a dinosaur face. The chickens were never taken beyond the embryonic state, so no dino-chickens were actually running around. 

The researchers have gained insight into the evolutionary process, as was the goal. Conceivably, however, this research could also be used towards the goal of engineering future dinosaur-like animals, although such research would widely be considered unethical. 

5. Daddy Short Legs

There are over 45,000 species of spiders in the world and most of us can only recognize a few by name. Of those, the Daddy Long Legs has to be one of the most famous. But odds are no one would recognize the genetically altered version made at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This new version was missing the hallmark of the species and instead had little stub legs, so they called it a Daddy Short Legs. The team were able to identify and switch off a pair of genes related to leg development in the spiders. This helped gain insight into the evolutionary process that gave the spiders long legs in the first place. Now if you want to know why that’s important, well, that’s just a science thing. Scientists like to know why things happen the way they do. 

4. Vaccine Bananas 

These last few years have really brought vaccines to the forefront of people’s mind around the world. But have you ever wondered why vaccines are almost always distributed the same way? Sure, going to a pharmacy or hospital and getting an injection makes sense, but what if there was another way? For instance, what if we could eat a vaccine? What if we could genetically modify a banana to provide vaccination against a disease?

Anti-vaxxers would no doubt flip their lids at the concept, but vaccine bananas were actively pursued for a time. The idea stumbled, however, and maybe for reasons that aren’t readily apparent. 

One of the big drawbacks was unreliability. Delivering specific doses and the stability of the antigens in a food suffered too many variables. Just look at the bananas in the store next time you go. Some are giant and some are small. Is the dose the same if they’re delivering vaccines? What if you eat a whole bunch, is it safe?

Other issues included immune tolerance, government regulations and good ol’ social resistance since people are already predisposed to mistrust GMOs.Still, the idea of using things like tomatoes to vaccinate against hepatitis B is still floated from time to time. 

3. Safer Pig Poop 

How worried are you about the chemical composition of pig poop? Canada struggled with this very issue, and in 2010, scientists there did something about it. The Enviropig was introduced to be a more environmentally friendly porker.

The genetically modified pigs were designed to produce less phosphorus when they pooped. The problem here is one most of us would never realize. All animals need phosphorus. It helps build cells and many other functions of life. Pigs get their phosphorus in feed but cannot digest phytate, a molecule made up chiefly of phosphorus. Farmers supplement an enzyme called phytase in their diets, which helps them digest it. But it’s inefficient and a lot of phosphorus gets excreted by pigs. 

Phosphorus from pig feces builds up in the water supply, feeding algae and creating biological dead zones with no oxygen. So the Enviropig was modified to not need phytase and excrete 40% less phosphorus as a result. The end result is a pig that helps the environmentally friendly and saves money on feed supplements. 

2. Spider Silk Goats 

Spider silk is stronger than steel, though in practical terms there are a lot of limitations to what that statement means. Still, being able to manufacture spider silk would surely have practical uses, right? That’s what researchers thought when they genetically engineered goats to produce it. The silk was produced by incorporating silk-spinning genes into the goats so that silk could be harvested along with the goat’s milk.

There are potentially dozens of applications for large-scale production from medical to textile and military. But spiders are very hard to farm and they tend to kill each other. Goats are much easier.  Nine years after Canadian scientists made the first two spider goats, and another facility was overseeing 20 of them. It’s still small scale, but it hasn’t gone away. 

1. Cyborg Dragonfly

If you want to go all out with genetic engineering, why not throw cybernetics into the mix as well? That’s how you end up with a cyborg dragonfly drone that mixes a genetically engineered insect with machinery all in one place. 

Real life drones are bulky, relatively speaking, when compared to insects. Scientists have tried to understand how something as small as an insect can have the energy to zip around at high speeds in such a small package when we can’t do the same with robotics. Tiny batteries are terribly inefficient. 

The solution seems to be making an insect a robot. A dragonfly was modified with neurons in its spine to make it steerable. With a tiny computer backpack to gather data and also charge the tech with a solar panel, the dragonfly can be piloted by remote control as light sensors are used to send signals to its brain. The result is a tiny, living spy that could get into places few humans or drones could. Does it open the possibility of up-scaling the tech and controlling more complex animals? Maybe so.

We hear a lot about scientists and their fancy ideas, though it’s actually engineers who put those ideas into practice for real world applications. At its most basic, engineering is the science of building things – like machines – to apply theoretical scientific principles to real life situations. The theoretical system of measuring time, as one example, no matter how sophisticated or accurate, is useless in the absence of a working clock. 

Of course, the greatest engineering marvels of today are a bit more advanced and complex than clocks. In the past few years, engineers from around the world have built many things that were once thought impossible, or at least well in the realm of the distant future. 

10. Parker Solar Probe

Despite its seeming proximity to Earth, we know very little about what’s going on with our own Sun, especially on its surface. It seems to be cooler than its atmosphere – or the corona – which is where all the Sun’s heat really comes from. It doesn’t make any sense – it’s like feeling hotter the further away you move from a fire.

That’s only one of the many things we don’t know about the Sun, and until recently, reaching its corona to take measurements was considered an impossible, futuristic task. NASA’s Parker probe broke that barrier on April 28, 2021, when it became the first man-made thing to touch the Sun’s atmosphere. It was Parker’s eighth flyby, and gave us some crucial insights into how solar winds are generated.

The probe is still in orbit around the Sun, and is expected to make another close flyby some time in 2025. 

9. Mind-Controlled Prosthetics

Modern prosthetics are, in themselves, one of the greatest engineering achievements of all time. For most of our history, amputees had to either live without them altogether, or make do with rudimentary, uncomfortable models made out of leather, wood and other basic material. It’s only now that prosthetic limbs have come to look and even almost feel like real limbs. Still, they’re far from being the real thing, as it’s impossible to recreate the neural connection between a living organ and the brain with a machine.

Mind-controlled prosthetics are a new class of prosthetics that could be, well, controlled by the mind, though they’re still in their early stages. One prototype developed by Swedish scientists connects with the patient’s nerves, muscles and skeleton, allowing them much more control over their fingers and wrists than previously thought possible. Currently, it’s in active use by three Swedish patients and doesn’t require any additional care or supervision by a medical professional, unlike most prosthetics we have right now. 

According to the researchers, the technology could be available for patients outside Sweden within this year. While it’s still not the same as a real limb, it provides us a glimpse into what the future of prosthetics might look like. 

8. Burj Khalifa

Sometimes, engineering is about pushing the frontiers of not just engineering, but also other areas of study, which advances our overall understanding of the world. However, it doesn’t have to be, as good engineering could also just be about building a really tall and good-looking building. 

Currently, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa, standing at a height of 2,717 feet. It is extraordinarily tall – about 500 feet taller than the next competitor – making you wonder how it’s even standing upright. 

Built by a Chicago firm called Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Burj Khalifa took over six years to complete, and was first opened to the public in January 2010. Its Y-shaped base is designed in the shape of the local Hymenocallis flower, though it also works to absorb heavy winds. 

There are a total of 163 floors, each built in a different shape to reduce the effect of the winds as you go higher. Apart from residences and shopping districts of its own, the building houses multiple observation decks, including the two-story At The Top on its 124th and 125th floors, as well as luxury restaurants, corporate spaces and a three-story lounge.

7. Floating Cities

Rising sea levels pose a huge challenge to the Netherlands, as over one-third of the country already lies below the current sea level. To counter its worst effects, a Dutch architecture firm has come up with Schoonschip: a conceptual residential project in Amsterdam that combines architecture and sustainable design to come up with an entirely new style of living.  

The entire neighborhood is built on floating arks in the Johan van Hasseltkade canal, and currently houses around 100 people in 46 residential properties. It’s an alternative to all the land-based models we currently have, though by no means a novel one – many native communities around the world still live on floating settlements. 

Schoonschip is more than just a fancy houseboat, however. Every part of its design is meant to be sustainable and reusable, with all the decision-making in the hands of the residents. For one example, all the energy generated within the complex is done through renewables, and traded among the residents through a blockchain. 

6. Nanobots

Nanobots – or microscopic robots that can carry out any function you want – have shown up in science fiction in various forms. Until recently, though, it was next to impossible to actually make something like that. Thanks to advancements in theoretical sciences and nanotechnology in the past few years, we already have the first prototypes of what future nanobots might look like.

As you’d expect, these tiny machines have quite a few use cases in medicine. A group of researchers from the University of California San Diego have developed nanobots that could clear toxins and pathogens from the bloodstream. Another one from the University of New South Wales figured out a way to train these bots to repair themselves with DNA, blurring the line between living organs and man-made robots. 

5. Invisibility Cloak

When we think of an invisibility cloak, we think of a hypothetical material that could render us truly invisible. (Or, just as likely, we think of Harry Potter. Naturally.) Many prototypes have been tried, though almost all of them rely on either cheap tricks of the light, or were too bulky to be of any real use.  

The only material that comes close to real-life invisibility is Quantum Stealth, developed by a Canadian corporation known as Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp. It’s a passive, everlasting effect, too, instead of using some kind of power generation or illusion to make it seem like you’re invisible. 

From the videos released by the firm, it’s clear that the material is designed to successfully bend light around any kind of subject – including large vehicles. We don’t know exactly how it works, though, as that information is still classified due to its possible military applications in the near future. 

4. Mind Reading

It’s one thing to scan the brain for electrical and neurological signals, and another to actually read and record what’s going on inside our heads like we perceive it. The former could be achieved by many machines found at your local hospital. The latter, though, is a barrier we never thought machines could cross, as consciousness is much more than just waves of electricity passing through the brain.

As it turns out, it’s really not. We already have machines that can identify a song playing inside your head with the help of an AI, as it learns the connections between brain signals and specific sections of music with the help of machine learning. Or even recreate the image you’re thinking about, albeit to a lower degree of accuracy than the songs (though still high enough to be creepy). 

3. 4D Objects

We’ve all heard of 3D printing, which involves basically making anything you want, as long as you have basic ingredients and its blueprint. It’s a revolutionary concept in itself, and has been successfully used in a wide variety of applications. Some day, it might even allow us to print living organs, or even living beings.

4D just builds upon that concept, except the printed things are now able to react to different conditions in real time. Quite a few 4D materials – also called smart materials – have been developed in the past few years, including self-healing plastics that can eliminate wear and tear and make plastic items infinitely reusable, fabrics that can rearrange their molecular arrangement to changes in the weather, and shoes that can fully repair themselves with an additional gel, among others. 

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence isn’t an entirely new concept. First coined in 1956, the term has come to refer to any type of machine or algorithm that can mimic human intelligence. Early experiments involved rudimentary, slightly-intelligent automatons like the John Hopkins Beast, though the technology was still held back by the lack of processing power and other computational limitations to have a real impact.

Fast forward to today, and Artificial Intelligence is easily one of the most groundbreaking developments of the past few years, thanks to the proliferation of powerful graphical processing units (or GPUs), machine learning and the emergence of ‘Big Data’. Neural networks, as one example of its many implementations, are able to think and compute exactly like the human brain, which includes the ability to learn from their mistakes. 

AI has revolutionized many fields, including medicine, logistics, space research, marketing, and pretty much anything that involves parsing a lot of data. That also, unfortunately, includes warfare, as militaries around the world develop their own AI-based technologies to be used in the automated battlefields of the future. 

1. Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider is perhaps one of the most important engineering works ever undertaken. It’s a 17-mile-long underground tunnel located on the border between France and Switzerland, with its primary purpose of smashing different kinds of particles together at really high speeds to understand the true nature of reality.

First operated in 2008, it was a massive project, not just in scale but also the scope of its purpose. Organized by CERN – or the European Organization for Nuclear Research – it was designed and built by over 10,000 scientists, engineers and other professionals from around the world. At over $10 billion, it’s easily the most expensive machine ever built, and we can now tell that it was well worth it. Since its first run, the LHC has made many important, fundamental contributions to theoretical physics, including the highly-publicized discovery of the Higgs boson back in 2012.

Helicopters are incredible flying machines that test the limits of design and mechanics by their very existence. But which helicopters truly test the limits of aviation? What about helicopters that fly upside down? A helicopter that lifts far more than its own weight? Or a rotary machine that rivaled jet airliners in size? These record setting rotorcraft will give your head a spin!

10. Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105: The Aerobat

The iconic steed of Red Bull pilots Chuck Aaron and successor Aaron Fitzgerald, the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 was a revolutionary contribution to rotary aviation from Germany that stands out as the world’s first aerobatic helicopter. The machine was also new as the first light helicopter to fly with twin engines. That’s right, this super powerful helicopter can do barrel rolls, loops, and fly inverted like the most extreme stunt planes thanks to its incredible design.

Thanks to the capabilities of the Bo 105 as the first ever helicopter to achieve these things, the flight envelope and perceived utility of the helicopter as a machine was revolutionized. The hingeless rotor built from solid titanium is just one great distinguisher of this engineering marvel. The machine can climb at 1,575 feet per minute, and cruise at 150 miles per hour under the power of two 420 standard horsepower Rolls Royce engines. The machines were produced primarily in Germany and Canada, with uses ranging from military to police service as well as in the famed upside down and barrel rolling airshow demos. The helicopter also has been set up for use on aircraft carriers and even fitted out to carry missiles.

9. Mil V-12: The Biggest One

Just how big can a helicopter get? Larger than you imagined, rivaling jet airliners while barely remaining identifiable to the casual eye as a horrifically overgrown helicopter. First flying in 1968, just before the entire project was canceled, the pre-Cold War Soviet Union’s Mil V-12 project was constructed as a transporter with a range of 621 miles and a carrying capacity of one 196 passengers, or a huge load of military cargo. Weighing just over seventy six US tons and designed to fly at 150 miles per hour, the largest helicopter in world history remains unsurpassed. 

The rotors each spanned just 220 feet across. Resembling a giant tube with long airplane-like wings each tipped with monster sized rotor blades, the beastly twin rotor whirlybird dwarfed many planes. In 1971, the Soviet Union demonstrated the monster at the Paris Airshow, astonishing witnesses who saw a helicopter with its rotors and vertical capabilities crossed with the look of an airliner. One of the reasons for exceptional Soviet helicopter development works was the need to move giant missiles to far off missile launch sites away from the eyes of Western spy planes more efficiently. Trains were slow and could not reach many areas but huge helicopters could.

8. Westland Lynx: Fastest Helicopter

The speediest conventional helicopter in the world looks humble, yet it retains its hold on the official world speed record for a helicopter flight since 1986. The Westland Lynx reached an average speed of just over 248 miles per hour over Somerset, England under the supervision of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) who bestowed the speed records on the helicopter for fastest speed reached in a helicopter of the 3,000–4,500 kilogram (6,613.868-99,208 pound) weight class plus the Absolute World Record for Rotorcraft. The achievements may have been decades ago but they have yet to be surpassed, as faster rotorcraft since have not been classified as true helicopters, but instead are hybrid aircraft with forward propulsion such as convertiplanes. 

The record setting Westland Lynx used specialized main blades designed to fight blade stalling behavior of the blades that would be made worse by high speed flight, a design venture brought to action by the British Experimental Rotor Programme. This programme was a joint effort involving Westland cooperating with the UK Ministry of Defense. High speed main blades, water and methanol power boosts to the engine plus reduction in exhaust pipe size were just some of the overhauls that would propel the helicopter to record speed. Furthermore, the tail rotor and fins were revised to better distribute stresses of high speed flight.

7. Kellet-Hughes XH-17: The Weirdest

If a real life transforming machine got stuck between crane and helicopter mode, the Kellet-Hughes XH-17 would be it. This strange work of aeronautical engineering resembled a helicopter that collided with a crane and flew off as one big mess. The huge contraption was equipped with jet engines mounted to the tips of each rotor in a bid to get the huge machine to fly properly. The machine had its origins in a plan to study and test the concepts of rotary winged craft powered by jets on the rotor tips instead of traditional helicopter drive systems. As work progressed, the need for a humongous machine that could lift and transport large cargo items into challenging areas led to a 1949 contract requesting that the testing rig be made into a functional flying crane.

The resulting XH-17 had a rotor diameter of 130 feet, with a maximum payload of just over 10,000 pounds. Two General Electric J35 gas turbines powered the ungainly machine, while parts from a laundry list of assorted planes including a Waco CG-15 glider cockpit, B-25 wheels, and a B-29 fuel tank were used. Yes, flames and deafening noise were included in the kafuffle that marked each undertaking to get this beast airborne. Eventually the project was abandoned on grounds of practicality. 

6. Kaman K-Max K-1200: Strangest Super Achiever

Likely the strangest  way to construct a twin rotor helicopter, the multimillion dollar Kaman K-Max K-1200 is a US-built flying machine with synchropter, or intermeshing rotor design. The intermeshing rotors always seem ready to cut into each other, sharing airspace nanoseconds apart, but never touch. Resembling a dolphin in appearance from the side, the rotors angle and intermesh like two gears that never touch, allowing lifting capacity that far outweighs that expected from a helicopter of its size. The laterally compressed body is narrow, making the helicopter look like a fish from a front view perspective.

With its squished design, there is just room for the pilot. The remarkable achievement of this helicopter that has double the rotor and less body than a normal helicopter is the ability to actually lift a cargo load heavier than the empty weight of the helicopter itself! Weighing just 5,145 pounds, the helicopter can take on an additional 6,855 pounds of weight for a maximum gross weight of 12,000 pounds. Uses of the K-1200 include firefighting, search and rescue and supply delivery. Work on a remotely piloted version also led to the creation of a machine that could enter hazardous situations without putting aviators in danger.

5. Bell AH-1 Cobra: First Dedicated Attack Heli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4hOeEVzPvc

Making its debut in the air in 1965, the Bell AH-1 Cobra was the first fully purpose built attack helicopter, placing impressive close combat air power in the hands of the US Army.  Fast, muscular and bristling with firepower, the machine still serves the US Marine Corps over half a century later. The helicopter looks fairly conventional but a closer look reveals many details borrowed from fighter jets, right down to the seating layout. The crew of two sat in series in the long but narrow cockpit with a bubble canopy, the co-pilot/gunner in the front and the pilot occupying the elevated rear seat. The helicopter is sleek, attractive and carries heavy firepower in an extremely efficient layout. 

Two short wings protrude from the sides of the fuselage, carrying missiles and minigun pods or cannons under the wings. A total of 3,0000 pounds of weaponry could be carried under the tiny but tough wings. Miniguns, grenade launchers or both were also mounted at the front turret under the nose. Compared to heavy transport helicopters that were the norm prior to the Cobra, the helicopter was a revolutionary step towards maneuverability and capability. Minimalistic skid undercarriage added little weight, leaving more payload capacity for the weapons.

4. Masumi Yanagisawa Engineering System Type GEN H-4: Smallest Helicopter

Looking like a patio chair with a ceiling fan attached, the Masumi Yanagisawa Engineering System Type GEN H-4 Helicopter is to a normal helicopter what a bicycle is to a pickup truck. The Japanese product is a unique flying machine for those brave enough to try it. Created in the 1990s by Gennai Yanigasawa, an electronics company head, the world’s smallest helicopter weighs only 165 pounds, making it the lightest of all helicopters, while its rotor span of 12.8 feet is the least of all. 

The machine may be tiny, but it is high tech. The problem of torque and counter-rotation is solved by the machine being coaxial. Instead of a tail rotor, which is not practical to install due to the lack of any tail boom, the machine has two counter-rotating rotors similar to a beginner’s remote controlled helicopter. The machine is not exactly slow, either. Speeds of 56 miles per hour can be reached and the helicopter can stay airborne for 30 minutes at a time. You might really be able to go somewhere perched on this machine. With the rotor blades spinning, the tripod landing gear, seat and rotor hub creates the look of a tiny UFO with a human rider.

3. Dragonfly DF1: Hydrogen Peroxide-Powered

Seating just one person and looking like a shopping cart and a chair with rotor blades attached, the Dragonfly DF1 is not a normal helicopter. It is powered by rockets, fueled by hydrogen peroxide, attached to the rotor tips. Both rockets blast out with power that equates to just over 100 horsepower per rocket motor. The hydrogen peroxide propulsion systems used to make the main rotors spin are only eight inches in length and weigh one and a half pounds each. Because there is no central motor, torque does not form, eliminating the need for powerful tail rotor action. 

Instead, a basic, low power tail rotor is just used for light steering duties. The power to weight ratio of the Dragonfly DF1 is impressive, given the 204 horsepower total power contrasted with a machine weight of merely 230 pounds. Ricardo Cavalcanti, Chairman Avimech Int’l Aircraft, Inc. is the creator of the machine, a renowned aeronautical engineer and nature enthusiast from Brazil who sees the creation as a more ecofriendly mode of flight. Ricardo’s machine uses a collective pitch control to gain altitude once the hydrogen peroxide rockets have got the blades spinning at 750 revolutions per minute.

2. De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle: The Worst Helicopter

Probably the one of the most unsettling idea ever for a helicopter, the De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle was a terrifying contraption that saw pilots standing right above rotor blades. Variations of the machine were tested from 1954 to 1956, showing promise only at first.

A twist grip throttle controller managed power, while the machine was supposed to have steer, pitch and yaw control by leaning. This was meant to be so easy that a soldier could fly the machine in a manner similar to riding a bicycle following less than half an hour’s training.  Safety of the machine itself became a glaring issue following crashes. Additionally, upright standing pilots on an Aerocycle would be seemingly easy targets for enemy firepower. The US Army thought there would be an airborne cavalry unit using the machines, but instead the Aerocycle project got scrapped in the end.

Test pilot Captain Selmer Sundby, who spent time in charge of the Aerocycle tests and program development before identifying the machine as being too flawed, ultimately received a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1958 to recognize his service with the project. A single remaining Aerocycle can be seen on display at the US Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia.

1. VS-300: The First Helicopter

The world’s first legitimately flyable helicopter was the Sikorsky VS-300, the work of rotary winged flight pioneer Igor Sikorsky. On September 14, 1939, the machine first got airborne in Stratford, Connecticut after construction by the United Aircraft Corporation’s Vought-Sikorsky Division. Sikorsky patented the basic design in 1931, with the flights to follow laying the groundwork for the familiar main and tail rotor helicopter ubiquitous in modern times. The machine’s first ventures into the air made use of tethers and it was not until 1940 that unrestricted flight took place. Sikorsky had started his engineering journey by making a windup toy helicopter at age 12.

A current day helicopter pilot would be most concerned by the open cockpit of this machine. The front pod looked something like the cockpit of a World War I biplane fighter, while the main blades swirled above the strapped in pilot. Sikorsky’s pioneering work used drive from a single engine to power both the main blades and anti-torque tail rotor. Not content to be the first normal single rotor helicopter, the VS-300 also got fitted with floats and became the first operational amphibian helicopter, landing and taking off from water with ease. The VS-300 is now an exhibit at the Dearborn, Michigan Henry Ford Museum.