Inventors Science

Learn about George Eastman and the invention of the Kodak camera.

Listen to the story of how Wilbur and Orville Wright developed, tested, and successfully flew the first powered airplane.

An acclaimed physicist introduces young audiences to the tiny building blocks that make up the world around us. Elegant and friendly, his explanations of atoms, the elements, and other essential science concepts reveal how very (very) small materials are manipulated to create self-washing windows, stronger and lighter airplanes, and other wonders of nanotechnology. This tribute to the tiny will inspire curious minds of every stripe.

You know the Super Soaker. It's one of the top 20 toys of all time. And it was an accidental discovery that brought it into being. Trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, inventor Lonnie Johnson instead created the mechanics for the iconic toy. A love of rockets, robots, and inventions and a mind for creativity were present in Lonnie Johnson's early life.

Inspired by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Michael J. Rosen's wry tale captures Ben's spirit in evocative yet playful language. A love story to the value of variety, A Ben of All Trades sheds light on an unconventional path to greatness and humanizes a towering figure in American history.

Michael Faraday is regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern physics. His work in the field of electromagnetism revolutionized society, leading to new avenues of study and developments of technology that would leave the world changed forever. Without Faraday’s discoveries, there would be no electronics or electrical power. There would be no technology as we recognize it, or at the very least those technologies would have taken much longer to arise, causing our time to look very different.

Estas historias te demostrarán que los errores y los fracasos no tienen por qué significar el fin de tu sueño. De hecho, podrían ser sólo el principio. Inspírate para convertir tus errores en éxitos y encuentra el potencial que hay detrás de cada accidente.

In the World War II era, Geoffrey Pyke was described as one of the world's great minds - to rank alongside Einstein. Pyke was an inventor, adventurer, polymath, and unlikely hero of both world wars. He earned a fortune on the stock market, founded an influential pre-school, wrote a bestseller, and came up with the idea for the US and Canadian Special Forces. Henry Hemming is the first reporter to sift through this extraordinary new information and finally tell Pyke's astonishing story in full: his brilliance, his flaws, and his life of adventures, ideas, and secrets.

Nikola Tesla was a major figure in the world in which he lived. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, it was Tesla who would contribute to some of the world's most amazing inventions. It was Tesla's theories, patents, and experiments that would pave the way for the digital, wireless world we are so familiar with today. Tesla didn't enjoy the high honors bestowed on so many of his contemporaries, yet he enjoyed the power of knowing that it was his inventions that were powering the world, literally.

Edwin Grosvenor writes of Bell's other extraordinary inventions: the first transmission of sound over light waves, metal detector, first practical phonograph, and early airplanes, including the first to fly in Canada. He also examines Bell's humanitarian efforts, including support for women's suffrage, civil rights, and speeches about what he warned would be a "greenhouse effect" of pollution causing global warming.

Hidden Energy: Tesla-Inspired Inventors and a Mindful Path to Energy Abundance gives reasons for optimism. This audiobook readies you for humankind's next leap - tapping into ample sources of truly clean power, the ultimate renewable. Making that leap is more about mindsets and a consciousness shift than technology.

With X-rays, doctors detect problems human eyes can't see. X-rays are a form of invisible radiation. This powerful medical technology helps experts look inside the body and even treat illnesses. But early on, X-rays caused harm too, as people used them without enough protection. This history covers the discovery of X-rays, the development of safety standards, and the rise of more powerful and precise X-ray machines. Find out how modern doctors create digital images of the inner body—even 3D images of our brains!

In the late 1950s, NASA and the Department of Defense had a problem. They could not figure out how to make a heat shield for manned spacecraft or ICBMs. The Air Force used heat-sink metals, especially copper, and the Navy, on Polaris, used a beryllium heat sink shield. The Space Task Group, in March 1958, were leaning toward the heat sink method.

“A house of wonders itself. . . . Wonderland inspires grins and well-what-d'ya-knows” —The New York Times Book Review From the New York Times–bestselling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves...

For decades, the blasts and howls of the electric guitar have been some of the defining sounds of popular music. But more than a century of effort and innovation had to happen before this instrument went electric. Learn about the master craftspeople who created the guitar as we know it, the inventors who figured out how to send guitar notes through amplifiers and give the guitar a bigger sound, and the musicians whose legendary playing put it at the center of rock 'n' roll.

In the 1920s cotton buyer Earle Dickson worked for Johnson & Johnson and had a klutzy wife who often cut herself. The son of a doctor, Earle set out to create an easier way for her to bandage her injuries. Band-Aids were born, but Earle's bosses at the pharmaceutical giant weren't convinced, and it wasn't until the Boy Scouts of America tested Earle's prototype that this ubiquitous household staple was made available to the public.

In a story that is both of its time and timeless, Evan I. Schwartz tells a tale of genius versus greed, innocence versus deceit, and independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. Many men have laid claim to the title "father of television," but Philo T. Farnsworth is the true genius behind what may be the most influential invention of our time. Driven by his obsession to demonstrate his idea, by the age of 20 Farnsworth was operating his own laboratory above a garage in San Francisco and filing for patents. The resulting publicity caught the attention of RCA tycoon David Sarnoff, who became determined to control television in the same way he monopolized radio.

This is a bundle of biographies of scientists and inventors that have paved the way for the technology and society we enjoy today. Their genius ideas and out-of-the-box thinking have been inspiring and courageous, to say the least.

In today’s world of AI, rapid innovation, and bold ideas, protecting your invention has never been more crucial. Bold (AI)deas: The Inventor’s Guide to Patents is a clear, practical roadmap to securing patents, maximizing intellectual property, and turning creativity into lasting value. Written by J. D. Houvener, MBA, Esq., a trusted patent attorney and entrepreneur, this guide simplifies the complexities of patent law into actionable steps anyone can follow.

Victor is sceptical when Walter Swizwit comes to the village of Rainwater. He's the latest in a string of inventors passing through and no one wants to buy his cheap magic tricks. But Walter doesn't take rejection well and puts a curse on the village. Only Victor is unaffected, and he must leave Rainwater for the first time in his life if he's to find the cure. Victor's path takes him past other villages that Walter has damaged and he picks up new companions on the way: Elena, handy with bow and arrow, Mo-Lan, a science prodigy and scaredy-cat Mingus.