Eurekais our week - prospicient speculation on the wonder of invention , inventor and champion . Here are the topics we ’ve marveled over .
How One Man circumstantially Invented Electronics in 1906
When Lee de Forest accidentally created the first electronic audio recording amplifier - the Audion - he “ inaugurated the geezerhood of electronics . ” you could learn about it in this excerpt from Nicholas Carr ’s Scripture What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains .
The 10 not bad Fictional Inventors of All Time
Eureka has been Giz ’s celebration of inventors of all stripe , from Tesla to Popeil . But some of the most memorable inventors of our time were actually invented themselves . Here are ten fictional pioneer near and dear to our hearts
Inside Thomas Edison ’s Vertically structured MegaLab
Thomas Edison was not an artificer for the love of the secret plan . “ I always invented to find money to go on manufacture , ” he say . For a unwearying idea like that , a lab had to be far more than a research lab .
Dr. NakaMats : The Man Who claim to Have Invented nigh Everything You Love
It ’s sturdy to cerebrate about inventors without think dear Dr. NakaMats . He claims to have invented over 3,000 items - frequently while almost drowning himself - and basically thinks Thomas Edison ’s an uneducated wimp who quit at 1,093 inventions .
The Cleanable Tobacco Pipe manufacture By Kurt Vonnegut ’s Dad
After fathering sci - fi satirist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. , Kurt Vonnegut Sr . dabbled in tobacco smoke , pipe cleaning , and invention . The result : this patent of invention for an easily - cleanable , cannular - stemmed tobacco plant pipe for “ a maximum of digital cleanliness . ” That entail clean fingers .
Five mass toss off By Their Own Inventions
Imagine putting geezerhood of time , effort and money into a life - changing innovation that you call up will contribute you lashings of money and fame while alter the human race . Now what if your amazing invention terminate up killing you instead ?
My First 3D : The Story of View - Master
No matter your age , there ’s a good chance that a View - Master was lying around either your chamber or a friend ’s . The iconic red goggles are the perfect childhood diversion - cheap and in short amusing . They also have a long history .
How Nathan Myhrvold and Intellectual Ventures Would Change the Patent System
patent ! They ’re a great good deal . Nathan Myhrvold ’s Intellectual Ventures depends on letters patent to make money , and they register a tidy sum of ’em . So I asked him how he ’d alter the letters patent organisation .
The Long , Unglamorous account of the Toilet
Nobody is entirely certain who first had the privilege of pose on a toilet . Evidence of ripe plumbery scheme in the ancient world abounds , but it ’s a strange , meandering path from antiquity to watch your inbox on the can .
Does Paul Allen Suing The total Internet Prove Our Patent System ’s Broken ?
Microsoft co - founder Paul Allen has launched a salvo of litigation over disputed patent , targeting Apple , Google , AOL , and Netflix , among others . None of the patent involve engineering science Allen was responsible for creating , but were licence through his Silicon Valley brooder .
6 legend of telecasting Inventions
There ’s not much good than a good infomercial - except perchance a really bad one . But these days there ’s no better instauration hotbed than basic overseas telegram ante up programming . Here we separate product from pitchman , and celebrate the brains behind As - Seen - On - TV .
Who manufacture the Macintosh ?
As invention has shifted from the singular genius to the corporal R&D research lab , the belief of the true creator has become more slippery . For instance , who invented the Macintosh ?
Do Different Languages Equal Different Realities ?
We usually simulate Logos are just a way of expressing estimate already in our heads . But what if it ’s the other room around ? Some linguistic scientist say the languages we speak fundamentally alter the way we think , and even perceive realness .
Why Failure Is an alternative at Intellectual Ventures
Nathan Myhrvold explains why failure is an choice at Intellectual Ventures - and it has to be for any inventor , really .
What Do You Think the Most Important Tech Invention of the 21st Century Is ?
A sight of amazing innovation , idea , and technologies do about in the 21st C , but we need to know : Which tech invention do you suppose was the most of import during this time ?
Rube Goldberg : The Man Behind the machine
From the craze plank game Mouse Trap to that awesome o.k. GO video ( to the one C of brilliant contraption scattered across YouTube ) , Rube Goldberg machines continue to enjoy a widespread popularity . But who was Rube Goldberg in the first place ?
Inside the Secret Underwater Lake Fort
A Nevada fellowship of scuba divers has prototyped an underwater fortress - an anchored air sac in a earnings - at the orphic location at the bottom of a lake in the Sierras . And it ’s been there for three years !
Lady , Missing a Leg ? This Guy want Slap a Machine Gun Onto It
Filmmaker Rob Spence , famed for his camera eyeball implant , an eligible untested woman is appear for an eligible young woman . Who ’s miss a leg . So he can give her a paintball machine gun . That she will tie to her leg .
Human Cannonball Astronaut : My roquette Is My dress
Within weeks , Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengtson will launch the first standing - elbow room - only ballistic capsule . Their rocket is a cylindric capsule that snugly fits around a stand somebody , with a exonerated plexiglass noggin so that the cosmonaut can see out .
MIT ’s Top 35 innovator Under 35
As we said in the basic article for our Eureka theme - hebdomad , discoverer are either white - hirsute old work force like Edison , or crackpots from informercial . MIT ’s Technology Review help expose these stereotypes with their 2010 inclination of the top pioneer under 35 .
How Kodak Built a FrankenCamera to Take Digital Photos in 1975
During the polar Rochester winter of 1975 , researcher at Kodak pieced together the future a fourth of a century early . build from scavenged component part , the team had created their first “ flick - less ” camera - an mind far ahead of its fourth dimension .
Whoops ! The 10 great ( Accidental ) Inventions of All Time
“ Everything come to him who hustle while he waits , ” Thomas Edison once say . But is hustling all it accept ? Is progress always deliberate ? Sometimes genius arrives not by choice - but by probability . Below are our ten favorite serendipitous innovations .
Why Ideas Are Expensive
Intellectual Ventures beginner and modern day Merlin Nathan Myhrvold explicate why it costs a lot of damn money to create new ideas . lead : Think Hollywood .
Living Batteries Will Perform well After Three Snickers Bars and a Coke
Researchers have evince off a prototype of a new biological assault and battery cubicle , which produces vim in the same way we do - by breaking down sugars and fatty tissue into something a little more utilitarian .
Like Most Men , Thomas Edison Enjoyed A Good Catfight
Thomas Edison and his Quaker were prostrate to recording short movies for amusement . This particular one reveals how the glorious discoverer is really just like near any other humankind : He just wanted to watch cleaning woman box .
Prototype Robot Swarm Could pick Up Oil Spill in a Month
This solar - powered lad is part of a automaton grouping called Seaswarm . He and his chum are cheap , sovereign , and transmit via GPS and Wi - Fi . And 5,000 of them could theoretically scavenge up the Gulf oil colour wasteweir in a month .
How Intellectual Ventures Wants to Reinvent Invention
“ Did plane come from the R&D department of a wagon train ship’s company or a steamship fellowship ? ” Nathan Myhrvold asks , rhetorically , his voice crack . He ’s excuse how his company , Intellectual Ventures , is plump to reinvent the way of life thing are manufacture .
Giz Talks To Sir James Dyson , Modern Inventor Extraordinaire
If anyone today can be look at an inventor , it ’s Sir James Dyson , the human beings who took the pocketbook out of the vacuum and the blade out of the fan . Here ’s the first time we talk to him , last fall .
Who require an Indoor Ball ? YOU Do , seemingly
Today ’s Nerf gunman are exceedingly complex , with automatic firing and reloadable flit magazines . But Nerf ’s eureka moment arose from a decidedly more archaic scene : some cave man chucking boulders around an position .
Watch This Color Movie , From Before Movies Were In colour
More than a decade before The Wizard of Oz and cash in one’s chips With the Wind give color question depiction wide ill fame , Kodak was conducting Kodachrome tests . The result : a serial vibrant , full colour moving portraits burst out of 1922 .
Eureka : Hello innovation
Once upon a meter , “ discoverer ” was an true - to - god line . You could check a box , and order the U.S. Census Bureau that ’s what you were . Now , discoverer are as - seen - as - on - TV caricatures and “ innovation ” is a bodied - speak . We want to celebrate design . Eureka .
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