Inventions and Science: Ideas and Inventors

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Printing office, c1600.Printing office, c1600. On the left compositors are at work setting up text using letters from a 'case' in front of them. In the centre background type is being inked ready to be printed on to paper in a flatbed screwjack press at centre right. Paper is hung up to allow ink to dry before being stacked in a pile by a boy at centre front. A master printer in a fur-lined gown supervises the enterprise. From Nova reperta by Joannes Stradanus (Jan van der Straet). (Antwerp, c1600). (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

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Printing Press

Created in China, the printing press revolutionized society there before being further developed in Europe in the 15th Century by Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the Gutenberg press.

School children gargling their throats as a precaution against the Influenza epidemic, England

What Is the Flu? Influenza is a viral respiratory infection that causes symptoms similar to, but more severe than, the common cold. Flu symptoms can include sudden onset fever, cough, runny or stuffy nose and severe malaise (feeling unwell). The flu can also sometimes cause vomiting, diarrhea and nausea, (particularly in young children), but the […]

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton: Early Life and Education Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The son of a farmer who died three months before he was born, Newton spent most of his early years with his maternal grandmother after his mother remarried. His education was interrupted by a failed attempt to […]

Nintendo game consoles In Japan circa 1992

Video Game History

The Early Days Though video games are found today in homes worldwide, they actually got their start in the research labs of scientists. In 1952, for instance, British professor A.S. Douglas created OXO, also known as noughts and crosses or a tic-tac-toe, as part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge. And in […]

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7 Momentous Inventions Discovered by Accident

Sometimes, the unexpected inspires new inventions.

How the World Learned to Manage the Flu

Since the 1940s, the World Health Organization has worked with different countries to keep the flu endemic by identifying strains and watching for signs of a pandemic.

Frederick Patterson standing beside a bare Patterson-Greenfield automobile chassis, probably for a larger touring car body.

One of the Earliest US Car Companies Was Founded by a Formerly Enslaved Man

C.R. Patterson & Sons, which started as a carriage building firm, produced luxury roadsters and, later, bodies for service vehicles.

The First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable Was a Bold, Short-Lived Success

After much ado, the US and Britain laid the first successful cable under the ocean in August 1858. It stopped working weeks later.

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Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney’s idea for interchangeable parts led to the second wave of industrialization across the United States. Find out more about his life (and his cotton gin) in this video.

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1918 Flu Pandemic

Get the full story behind the aches, pains and dangerous history of the flu.

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Tesla’s Death Ray

Before his death, Nikola Tesla was reportedly working on what the press called a “Death Ray.” It was a weapon so powerful it could obliterate military targets from hundreds of miles away, but did it actually exist?

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