Showing titles in Inventions & Inventors

Human transportation has come a long way since the invention of the wheel. Vehicles of all sorts have us speeding across land, through water, and in the skies. What might be next? From self-driving cars to jet packs, listeners will discover exciting new ways they may get around in the future.

Hear about some of the world's fastest transportation breakdowns. Find out how each form of transportation failed, the basic engineering missed during construction, and what engineers learned from their mistakes.

Hear about some of the world's greatest gadget disasters. Find out how each gadget failed, what went wrong with its design or manufacture, and what programmers learned from their mistakes.

Hear about some of the world's biggest building blunders. Find out how each structure failed, the basic building block that was missed during construction, and what engineers learned from their mistakes.

One day in 1882, Thomas Edison flipped a switch that lit up lower Manhattan with incandescent light and changed the way people live ever after. The electric light bulb was only one of thousands of Edison’s inventions, which include the phonograph and the kinetoscope, an early precursor to the movie camera. As a boy, observing a robin catch a worm and then take flight, he fed a playmate a mixture of worms and water to see if she could fly! An accessible, appealing biography of the inventor. 

When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. It wasn’t until years later that she was diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that makes communication difficult. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her career has revolutionized the livestock industry - each year, half the cattle in the United States are handled in cruelty-free facilities she designed. She is also a passionate advocate for autism, using her experience to prove that people with this disorder can have “normal” lives.

Hear about some of the world's most messed-up medical mishaps. Find out how each procedure, tool, or surgery failed, the basic science that was missed, and what doctors learned from their mistakes.

From laboratory robots to robotic prosthetics, this exploration of scientific inquiry celebrates the greatest developments to date in medical robotics. Get to know the physicians, scientists, and other researchers responsible for these breakthroughs in medicine, and explore the ups, the downs, and the eureka moments that are science in action.

Have you ever wondered just how a glow stick works? Or what about those glow-in-the-dark stars you stick on your ceiling keep on shining? In her first book, author and teacher Anita Sitarski answers these questions and more giving listeners the inside scoop on everything that glows. Fireflies, bacteria, squid, jelly fish—what do all of these things have in common? They glow! It seems like one of mother nature’s mysteries, but many curious scientists have begun to shine light on this beautiful phenomenon.

Some people say that space is the final frontier. But robots are making space much less mysterious. Robots and robotic probes have been exploring the planets and helping astronauts do research since the 1970s. Listen to learn about incredible space robots and the amazing things that they have discovered about our solar system.

From the discovery of the Polio vaccine to the breakthrough in mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, this exploration of scientific inquiry celebrates the greatest developments to date in vaccine science. Get to know the physicians, scientists, and other researchers responsible for these breakthroughs in medicine, and explore the ups, the downs, and the eureka moments that are science in action.

From machine learning to virtual surgery practice, this exploration of scientific inquiry celebrates the greatest developments to date in medical artificial intelligence. Get to know the physicians, scientists, and other researchers responsible for these breakthroughs in medicine, and explore the ups, the downs, and the eureka moments that are science in action.

Totally Amazing Facts About Outrageous Inventions is the perfect treat for kids with an appetite for "Did you know…?" More than 100 facts about everything from toothbrushes, airplanes, and flush toilets to animation, ice cream, and crayons!

Before Garrett Morgan became a successful inventor and saved countless lives with his creations, he was a little boy with a head full of ideas on how to make life better for everyone. At a tumultuous time filled with racism and discrimination, Garrett became a prominent business man and skilled inventor who produced the traffic signal, a gas mask, and others objects still used today.

Когда ребенок растет, его интересует все вокруг: что, почему и из-за чего происходит. И порой случается так, что казалось бы на самый простой и наивный детский вопрос оказывается не так то просто найти правильный ответ.

What happens when a young elephant steps on a buried land mine? What happens when a sea turtle’s flipper is injured by a predator? Thanks to recent advances in technology, we have new ways to design and build prosthetic body parts that can help these animals thrive. Discover the stories of how veterinarians, doctors, and even students from around the world used 3D printing and other techniques to build bionic body parts for these amazing animals.

Wie wurde aus den Hieroglyphen der alten Ägypter später das gedruckte Buch? Und was hat der Flug des Ikarus mit dem ersten Flugzeug zu tun? All die Dinge, die wir heute im Alltag benutzen, haben eine lange und spannende Entwicklung hinter sich, die oft weit in die Geschichte zurückreicht. Ralph Erdenberger erzählt im neuesten Sagenhaft-Teil von klugen Köpfen und unentbehrlichen Innovationen.

Sure, almost all kids know Benjamin Franklin as one of America's Founding Fathers, a man with a hand in both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. And they may even have some vague idea that he once flew a kite during a lightning storm. What Kathleen Krull sets out to do in this very different biography is show Ben Franklin as the natural philosopher (the term for scientists back in the 1700s), whose experiments led to important discoveries about the nature of electricity - including his famous demonstration that electricity and lightning were one and the same.

This fascinating look at history's most mysterious messages is packed with puzzles to decode and ciphers that kids can use themselves. Here are the encrypted notes of Spartan warriors, the brilliant code-crackers of Elizabeth I, secret messages of the American Revolution, spy books of the Civil War, the famous Enigma Machine, and the Navajo code talkers. As computers change the way we communicate, codes today are more intriguing than ever. From invisible ink to the CIA, this exciting trip through history is a hands-on, interactive experience - so get cracking!

Although Orville and Wilbur Wright are celebrated today as heroes for their revolutionary contributions to science and engineering - they are acknowledged as the first men to successfully achieve powered, piloted flight - their success was hard-earned. In fact, it took the self-taught engineers years of work and dozens of crashes before they managed a single 12-second flight! In this first installment of the brand new Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take listeners through the Wright brothers' many mishaps and misadventures as they paved the way for modern aviation.