Showing results for "UN Studio" in Science & Technology

At least as far back as the ancient myth of Icarus, humans longed to fly - but it wasn't until December 17, 1903, on the windy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that the dream finally came true. And it was all thanks to Orville and Wilbur Wright, two former bicycle mechanics who built their first toy plane - a rubber-band powered rotary - when they were just children.

Meet the Wizard of Menlo Park, and see how he grew from a lonely, inquisitive boy who carried out experiments in his basement to the smart, enterprising, and imaginative inventor who gave us the stock-market ticker, helped develop the phonograph and cinema, and even came up with the first storage battery and electric car.

At least as far back as the ancient myth of Icarus, humans longed to fly - but it wasn't until December 17, 1903, on the windy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that the dream finally came true. And it was all thanks to Orville and Wilbur Wright, two former bicycle mechanics who built their first toy plane - a rubber-band powered rotary - when they were just children.

Books are often used to put children to bed. But what happens after we close our eyes? The world keeps spinning, people go to work, machines plug on, and many of the Earth's living creatures are just waking up! While You Were Sleeping is going to fill its readers in on everything they're missing after they drift off to sleep. The book is divided into six chapters (animals, the human body, space, pop culture, and sports), with each chapter focusing on different activities that happen every night.

What do libraries, streetlights, and fire stations have in common? What about bifocal lenses and the odometer? Sayings like "haste makes waste?" Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents: a scientist who experimented with electricity; a diplomat who served as envoy to France and negotiated peace with England; a mapmaker, printer, and writer famous for his Poor Richard's Almanack.

Dmitri Mendeleyev gave science one of its most important discoveries when he published his periodic table of elements. The periodic table has determined much in the way of science in the past and will continue to do so in the future. The scientist behind the table came from the barren wasteland of Siberia in 19th-century Russia and rose to world acclaim for his work in chemistry.

When George Eastman decided to make photography his hobby, "simple" was hardly the word to describe the pastime. He had to lug 50 pounds of camera equipment around with him, including the fragile glass plates that would become pictures. But resourceful George wasn't one to put up with such inconvenience for long. Click! is the story of how George Eastman developed a camera simple enough for anyone to use―the Kodak, predecessor of today's pocket instamatics―and forever revolutionized photography.

Henry Ford loved mechanical things: springs and gears, cogs and wheels, and things that clicked and ticked and turned. One hot summer day in 1876, Henry and his father were riding to Detroit in their farm wagon. Suddenly there was a huffing-puffing monster heading straight toward them. It was a road-roller, and it was lumbering down the road all by itself. That was the day Henry started thinking about horseless riding machines—and he never stopped.

Although he is credited with changing history through his invention of printing, Johann Gutenberg remains mysterious. In Fine Print, author Joann Johansen Burch pieces together Gutenberg's amazing story.

Milton Hershey loved candy. As a boy, he saved his hard-earned pennies for the candy store. He soon discovered that he had a gift for making delicious treats and, after years of trying, Milton finally make it big. People loved his new HERSHEY'S chocolate. Listeners will delight in the story behind Hershey's mouth-watering world of chocolate.