For Crops In The Desert, Try These Inflatable Container Farms
AirFarm is an inflatable container farm that could help people grow crops where there’s not a lot of water. The idea - pun intended- blew up at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Ernest Bazin Invented A Ship With Rolling “Wheels” And Named It After Himself
This month in 1893, the formal start of an effort to build a new kind of seagoing vessel: a ship with rolling wheels.
Even The Inventor Of Inline Skates Crashed Once In A While
It's National Roller Skating Month, and we’re going all the way back to the guy who created the first skates. It's a little reassuring that even he had trouble rolling along like the rest of us.
Pacemaker Pioneer Wilson Greatbatch Helped Millions Of Hearts
Today in 1919, the birthday of Wilson Greatbatch, who made implantable pacemakers a reality for millions of patients. A pretty big legacy for a guy who considered himself a “humble tinkerer.”
Alexander Graham Bell Invented A “Photophone” That Sent Sound On Beams Of Light
Alexander Graham Bell is best known for the telephone, but he thought his light-based calling system, the photophone was way more important... so much so that he even tried to name his daughter Photophone Bell.
Maria Beasley Invented A Life Raft And Lots Of Other Hugely Useful Things
Today in 1882 inventor Maria Beasley received the patent for a collapsible life raft. But Beasley was one of those inventors who came up with idea after idea in a bunch of fields, so there's lots more to her story.
When News Companies Tried To Deliver Newspapers Through Radio Transmissions
Today in 1939, the opening of the World's Fair in New York. One of the inventions featured there was a way that newspapers could broadcast newspapers over the radio and have special receivers print out a copy of the paper for customers.
This Smart Glove Could Help Divers Warn Each Other When There’s Danger Nearby
There’s a new development under the sea: a smart glove that could help scuba divers help each other steer clear of danger.
The Tempest Prognosticator Used Leeches To Predict Stormy Weather
Today was the birthday in 1794 of George Merryweather, the inventor of his era’s most fascinating leech-based weather predicting contraption: the tempest prognosticator.
Legendary Physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard Once Teamed Up To Design A Refrigerator
For Alfred Einstein's birthday, the story of how he and fellow prominent physicist Leo Szilard co-designed a unique kind of refrigerator in the 1920s.