Inventions

It is tempting to think life in the 21st century is a world away from the 1800s, but despite the communication revolution…

There’s nothing quite like the prospect of a battlefield advantage to convince a general or politician to plow some money into a…

They buzz, hop, and make noises in the night. It is hard to miss the presence of insects. But for most, these…

Sometimes, genius arrives simply by chance, not by choice. That explains why some of the greatest inventions happened by accident. In some…

Have you ever wondered how somebody came up with an idea? For example, how did somebody ever think of making an X-ray…

In a world of short-lived inventions, today’s gadgets and fads become tomorrow’s relics; sometimes by accident, often by design. Two hundred years…

The term ‘dark ages’ was coined by a 14th century Italian scholar called Petrarch, and has since been informally used to refer…

Manners and Tone of Good Society (1879), the seminal guide to Victorian dining, outlined how to navigate around the vast array of…

When a new gadget or technological marvel is introduced, people often describe it as something that will change the world. Maybe it…

Modern technology is making the world more synthetic. Some inventions that mimic real things are valuable—like the fake snot that fights diseases.…