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.

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 […]

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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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.

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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Ask History: Who Really Invented the Light Bulb

Thomas Edison wasn’t the only inventor to lay claim to the light bulb, so whose bright idea was it? Ask History finds out.

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Lonnie Johnson: The Inventor Behind the Super Soaker

How many of us remember hot summer days, running around with a Super Soaker in hand? What you might not know is that your summer fun was all thanks to a nuclear engineer who also worked on the stealth bomber. His name is Lonnie Johnson, and he inadvertently gave the world the Super Soaker.

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