Scientific discoveries that have changed the human world. Russian inventions that changed the world

British scientists have made a significant contribution to the development of all areas of science. It is hard to imagine that if only a few people had not presented their inventions to the world, today we could know nothing about the force of gravity, live without television and antibiotics. Portal "ZagraNitsa" remembered the most significant discoveries that we owe to the British

A television

In 1925, British engineer John Baird presented a mechanical television set at the Royal Institution, the first workable model of its type. Later, mechanical television supplanted electronic developments, but Baird's invention was the first step towards creating what we today call television.

Photo: mediasat.info 2

Newton's laws

One of the most significant scientists in the history of mankind, Briton Isaac Newton, in the middle of the 17th century, proved the law of universal gravitation and the laws of mechanics. Of course, even before these discoveries, people wondered why objects fall to the ground, but it was Newton who was the first to prove his theories.

Photo: enkivillage.com 3

Evolution

In the middle of the 19th century, the English naturalist Charles Darwin presented his theory of evolution, which completely changed the world and humanity's idea of ​​its own origin. Darwin's discovery dealt a powerful blow to religion, even though the scientist himself was not yet an atheist at the time of its publication.

Photo: reference.com

The World Wide Web

In 1989, Briton Tim Burns-Lee came up with a distribution system that provides access to related documents, known today as the World Wide Web. It was Burns-Lee who created protocols such as URL, HTTP, HTM, without which the Internet space cannot function today.

Photo: worldwebforum.ch 5

Programmable computer

In the 1830s, the British mathematician Charles Babbage designed the first analytical computer. The invention was not only the work of his whole life and brought posthumous fame, but also became the prototype of the modern computer. Unfortunately, Babbage did not manage to see his project in finished form - the project was closed due to lack of funds, and the computer itself was created only in 1989.

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electric motor

In 1821, the English physicist Michael Farraday discovered how electricity could be used to create motion and then set about developing the electric motor. Without a doubt, it has become one of the most significant inventions made by the British, without which it is impossible to imagine the modern world.

Photo: enkivillage.com 7

Locomotive

The first person to come up with a steam wagon moving on rails was the English inventor Richard Trevithick. On the first model of the locomotive, they were able to transport ore, and on subsequent, improved models, they could carry up to 70 passengers and 10 tons of iron. And although the creators of the Rocket steam locomotive received more fame than Trevithick, it was his invention that inspired them to create prototypes of modern steam locomotives.

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Bulb

And although the American inventor Thomas Edison was the first to create a functioning incandescent lamp, the very development of the idea of ​​​​a light bulb was carried out by the English chemist Joseph Swan. He twice received a patent for the creation of an invention, but his light bulb at first did not work long and was inefficient. At the same time, Edison worked on improving the Swan model and was the first to make it practical.

Photo: mediacomservices.com.au

Antibiotics

In the middle of the 20th century, the British scientist Alexander Fleming accidentally made a discovery that changed the then medicine. After leaving for a long time, Fleming, among all the mess, left a vessel with the bacteria he was studying in the laboratory. When he returned, he found that molds had grown in the vessel, and the bacteria had become transparent due to cell destruction. So the scientist isolated the active substance, which was called penicillin and became an effective anti-infective agent.

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Baby carriage

In the 18th century, the Duke of Devonshire asked the artist and architect William Kent to come up with a hand-held device for rolling his children. And he created a smaller, beautifully decorated copy of an adult cart, in which the child could only sit. A few years later, more and more parents began to purchase strollers for their children, including Queen Victoria, who bought three strollers for her babies.

Photo: shutterstock

Read about the funny discoveries of British scientists.

We live in a unique time! It takes only half a day to fly around half the Earth, our super-powerful smartphones are 60,000 times lighter than the original computers, and today's agricultural production and life expectancy are the highest in the history of mankind!

We owe these tremendous achievements to a small number of great minds - scientists, inventors and artisans who have come up with and developed the products and mechanisms on which the modern world is built. Without these people and their great inventions, we would go to bed at sunset and be stuck in a time when there were no cars or telephones.

In this list, we will talk about the most important and decisive recent inventions, their history and significance in the development of mankind. Can you guess which inventions we are talking about?

From the methods of sanitizing food and making it safer, to the toxic gas that helped form the basis of international trade, to the invention that led to the sexual revolution and liberated people, each of these creations has had a profound impact on people's lives. Learn about 25 amazing inventions that have changed our world!

25. Cyanide

While cyanide is a rather grim way to start this list, the chemical has played an important role in human history. While its gaseous form has caused the death of millions of people, cyanide is the main factor in extracting gold and silver from ore. And since the world economy was tied to the gold standard, cyanide served and continues to be an important factor in the development of international trade.

24. Airplane


There is no doubt that the invention of the “iron bird” had one of the greatest impacts on human history.

Drastically reducing the time it takes to transport people and goods, the airplane was invented by the Wright brothers, who built on the work of previous inventors such as George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal.

Their invention was readily accepted by a significant part of society, after which the “golden age” of aviation began.

23. Anesthesia


Until 1846, there was little difference between surgical procedures and painful experimental torture.

Anesthetics have been used for thousands of years, although their early forms were much simplified versions, such as alcohol or mandrake extract.

The invention of modern anesthesia in the form of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) and ether has allowed doctors to operate without fear of causing pain to their patients. (Bonus fact: cocaine is said to have been the first effective form of local anesthesia since it was used in eye surgery in 1884.)

22. Radio


The history of the invention of the radio is not so clear: someone claims that it was invented by Guglielmo Marconi, someone insists that it was Nikola Tesla. In any case, these two men relied on the work of many famous predecessors before successfully transmitting information via radio waves.

And although this is already a common thing today, try to imagine that in 1896 you told someone that you could transmit information over the air. You would be mistaken for insane or possessed by demons!

21. Phone

The telephone has become one of the most important inventions of the modern world. As is the case with most great inventions, its inventor and the people who made a significant contribution to its appearance are discussed in heated debates and discussions to this day.

The only thing known for certain is that the first patent for a telephone was issued by the US Patent Office to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. This patent served as the basis for further research and development of electronic sound transmission over long distances.

20. “The World Wide Web, or WWW


Although most of us assume that this invention is recent, the Internet actually existed in its obsolete form as early as 1969, when the US military developed the ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network).

The first message that was planned to be transmitted over the Internet - "log in" ("log in") - disabled the system, so only "lo" could be sent. The World Wide Web as we know it today began when Tim Berners-Lee created the hypertext document network and the University of Illinois created the first Mosaic browser.

19. Transistor


It seems that there is nothing easier than picking up the phone and contacting someone in Bali, India or Iceland, but nothing would have happened without a transistor.

Thanks to this semiconductor triode, which amplifies electrical signals, it became possible to transmit information over great distances. The man who was one of the inventors of the transistor - William Shockley - founded the laboratory that stood at the origins of the creation of Silicon Valley.

18. Quantum clock


Although it may not seem as revolutionary as many of the things listed above, the invention of quantum (atomic) clocks was decisive for the development of mankind.

Using microwave signals emitted by changing energy levels of electrons, quantum clocks have made possible a wide range of modern inventions with their precision, including GPS, GLONASS and the Internet.

17. Steam turbine


The steam turbine of Charles Parsons pushed the boundaries of human technological progress, giving power to industrialized countries and helping ships to cross vast oceans.

The engines work by rotating the shaft with the help of compressed water vapor generating electricity - one of the main differences between a steam turbine and a steam engine, which made a revolution in the industry. In 1996 alone, 90% of all electricity generated in the US was produced by steam turbines.

16. Plastic


Despite its ubiquitous use in modern society, plastics are a relatively recent invention, dating back only a hundred plus years.

This moisture-resistant and incredibly pliable material is used in almost every industry - from food packaging to toys and even spacecraft.

Although most modern plastics are made from petroleum, there are increasing calls for a return to the original version, which was partially natural and organic.

15. Television


Television has a long and storied history that began in the 1920s and has continued to evolve to the present day with modern features such as DVDs and plasma panels.

As one of the most popular consumer products worldwide (nearly 80% of households own at least one television set), this invention was the cumulative result of numerous previous advances that led to a product that became a major influencer of public opinion in the middle of the 20th century.

14. Oil


Most of us don't think twice before filling up our car's gas tank. Although mankind has been extracting oil for a millennium, the modern gas and oil industry began its development in the second half of the 19th century - after modern street lamps appeared on the streets.

Having appreciated the huge amount of energy that is generated by burning oil, industrialists rushed to build wells for the extraction of "liquid gold".

13. Internal combustion engine

If there were no productive oil, there would be no modern internal combustion engine.

Used in many areas of human activity - from cars to agricultural combines and excavators - internal combustion engines make it possible to replace people with machines that can perform overwhelming, painstaking and time-consuming work in a matter of time.

Also, thanks to these engines, a person received freedom of movement, since they were used in the original self-propelled vehicles (cars).

12. Reinforced concrete


Until the advent of reinforced concrete in the middle of the 19th century, mankind could safely erect buildings only up to a certain height.

Embedding steel rebars before pouring the concrete has strengthened it so that the man-made structures are now able to carry much more weight, allowing us to build buildings and structures bigger and taller than ever before.

11. Penicillin


Today, there would be far fewer people on our planet if it were not for penicillin.

Officially discovered by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, penicillin was one of the most significant inventions (mostly discoveries) that made our modern world possible.

Antibiotics were among the first medicines to properly deal with staphylococcus aureus, syphilis, and tuberculosis.

10. Cooling


The taming of fire was perhaps the most important discovery of mankind to date, but it would take more than one millennium until we tamed the cold.

Although mankind has long used ice for cooling, its practicality and availability has been limited for some time. In the 19th century, humanity made significant progress in its development after scientists invented artificial cooling using chemical elements that absorb heat.

By the early 1900s, almost every meatpacking plant and large wholesaler was using artificial refrigeration to store food.

9. Pasteurization


Helping to save the lives of many people half a century before the discovery of penicillin, Louis Pasteur invented the process of pasteurizing, or heating food (originally beer, wine, and dairy products) to a temperature high enough to kill most putrefactive bacteria.

Unlike sterilization, which kills all bacteria, pasteurization, while preserving the palatability of the product, only reduces the number of potential pathogens, reducing it to a level at which they are not capable of harming health.

8. Solar battery


Just as oil fueled the development of industry, the invention of the solar battery has allowed us to use renewable energy in a much more efficient way.

The first practical solar battery was developed in 1954 by specialists from the Bell Telephone laboratory based on silicon. Over the years, the efficiency of solar panels has increased dramatically along with their popularity.

7. Microprocessor


If the microprocessor had not been invented, then we would never have known about laptops and smartphones.

One of the most widely known supercomputers - ENIAC (ENIAC) - was created in 1946 and weighed 27.215 kg. Intel electronics engineer and world hero Ted Hoff developed the first microprocessor in 1971, putting the functions of a supercomputer on a single small chip, making portable computers possible.

6. Laser


An acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, the laser was invented in 1960 by Theodore Maiman. The amplified light is anchored through spatial coherence, which allows the light to remain focused and concentrated over long distances.

In today's world, lasers are used almost everywhere, including laser cutting machines, barcode scanners, and surgical equipment.

5. Nitrogen fixation (nitrogen fixation)


While the term may seem overly scientific, nitrogen fixation is actually responsible for the dramatic increase in the human population on Earth.

By converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, we have learned how to produce highly effective fertilizers, thanks to which, on the same plots of land, it became possible to increase production volumes, which significantly improved our agricultural products.

4. Assembly line


The impact of the inventions that have become commonplace, which they had in their time, is rarely remembered, but the importance of the assembly line cannot be overestimated.

Before his invention, all products were painstakingly made by hand. The assembly line allowed for the mass production of identical components, greatly reducing the time to produce a new product.

3. Birth control pill


Although pills and tablets have been one of the main methods of taking medicine for thousands of years, the invention of the birth control pill was the most revolutionary of them all.

Approved for use in 1960 and now taken by more than 100 million women worldwide, this combined oral contraceptive was the main impetus for the sexual revolution and changed the dialogue about fertility, largely shifting the responsibility of choice from men to women.

2. Mobile phone / smartphone


Chances are you're currently reading or browsing this list on your smartphone.

While the first widely known smartphone was the iPhone, which hit the market in 2007, we have Motorola, its "ancient" predecessor, to thank for that. In 1973, it was this company that released the first wireless pocket mobile phone, which weighed 2 kilograms and took 10 hours to charge. To make matters worse, it could only be spoken for 30 minutes before the battery needed to be recharged again.

1. Electricity


Most of the modern inventions on this list wouldn't even be remotely possible were it not for the greatest of them all, electricity. As long as one thinks that the Internet or the plane should top this list, both of these inventions should be grateful to electricity.

William Gilbert and Benjamin Franklin were the pioneers who laid the initial foundation upon which such great minds as Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday and others built, sparking the Second Industrial Revolution and opening era of lighting and electricity.

At all times, there were enough inventors in Russia, whose creations were widely used throughout the world. It’s easier to just list our scientists and inventions, and the discoveries will be remembered: Lomonosov, Kulibin, Mendeleev, Tsiolkovsky, Vernadsky, Pirogov, Mechnikov, Timiryazev, Pavlov, Zhukovsky, Kapitsa, Sechenov, Jacobi, Lodygin, Yablochkov, Zvorykin, Vavilov, Zelinsky, Lobachevsky, Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, Tamm, Tupolev, Polikarpov, Popov, Antonov, Chaplygin, Landau, Sikorsky, Chizhevsky, Kabalevsky, S. Kovalevskaya and many, many others. Such was it - supposedly "bastard", "backward", "illiterate" Russian Empire, who taught and educated these wonderful scientists and engineers - the pride of all mankind.Let's recall some of the inventions of Russian inventors, which helped to make technological progress not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders.

Electrotype

We so often come across products that look like metal, but are actually made of plastic and only covered with a layer of metal, that we no longer notice them. There are also metal products coated with a layer of another metal - for example, nickel. And there are metal products that are actually a copy of a non-metal base. We owe all these miracles to the genius of physics Boris Jacobi - by the way, the elder brother of the great German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacobi. Jacobi's passion for physics resulted in the creation of the world's first electric motor with a direct rotation of the shaft, but one of his most important discoveries was electroforming - the process of deposition of metal on a mold, which allows you to create perfect copies of the original object. In this way, for example, sculptures on the naves of St. Isaac's Cathedral were created. Electroplating can be used even at home. The electroforming method and its derivatives have found numerous applications. With its help, they did and still don’t do anything, up to the cliches of state banks. Jacobi received the Demidov Prize in Russia for this discovery, and a large gold medal in Paris. Possibly made in the same way.

electric car

In the last third of the 19th century, a uniform electrical fever swept the world. Therefore, electric cars were made by all and sundry. This was the "golden age" of electric cars. Cities were smaller, and 60 km on a single charge was quite acceptable. One of the enthusiasts was the engineer Ippolit Romanov, who by 1899 had created several models of electric cabs. But the main thing is not even that. Romanov invented and created in metal an electric omnibus for 17 passengers, developed a scheme of urban routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received a work permit. True, at your own personal commercial fear and risk. The inventor could not find the required amount, to the great delight of competitors - horse-drawn horse owners and numerous cabbies. However, a working electric omnibus aroused great interest among other inventors and remained in the history of technology as an invention killed by the municipal bureaucracy.

Pipeline transport

It is difficult to say what is considered the first real pipeline. One can recall the proposal of Dmitri Mendeleev, dated as far back as 1863, when he proposed to deliver oil from the extraction sites to the seaport at the Baku oil fields not in barrels, but through pipes. Mendeleev's proposal was not accepted, and two years later the first pipeline was built by the Americans in Pennsylvania. As always, when something is done abroad, it starts to be done in Russia as well. Or at least make money. In 1877, Alexander Bari and his assistant Vladimir Shukhov again came up with the idea of ​​pipeline transport, already relying on the American experience, and again on the authority of Mendeleev. As a result, in 1878 Shukhov built the first oil pipeline in Russia, proving the convenience and practicality of pipeline transport. The example of Baku, which was then one of the two leaders in world oil production, became contagious, and “getting on the pipe” became the dream of any enterprising person. In the photo: view of a three-furnace cube. Baku, 1887.

Arc welding

Nikolai Benardos comes from Novorossiysk Greeks who lived on the Black Sea coast. He is the author of more than a hundred inventions, but he went down in history thanks to electric arc welding of metals, which he patented in 1882 in Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England, the USA and other countries, calling his method "electrohephaestus". Benardos' method spread across the planet like wildfire. Instead of fiddling with riveted bolts, it was enough to simply weld pieces of metal. However, it took about half a century for welding to finally take the dominant position among the installation methods. It seems to be a simple method - to create an electric arc between the consumable electrode in the hands of the welder and the pieces of metal that need to be welded. But the solution is elegant. True, it did not help the inventor to adequately meet old age, he died in poverty in 1905 in an almshouse.

Multi-engine aircraft "Ilya Muromets"

It is hard to believe now, but just over a hundred years ago, it was believed that a multi-engine aircraft would be extremely difficult and dangerous to fly. Igor Sikorsky proved the absurdity of these statements, who in the summer of 1913 took off a twin-engine aircraft, called Le Grand, and then its four-engine version, the Russian Knight. On February 12, 1914, in Riga, at the training ground of the Russian-Baltic Plant, the four-engine Ilya Muromets took off. There were 16 passengers on board the four-engine aircraft - an absolute record of that time. The plane had a comfortable cabin, heating, a bath with a toilet and ... a promenade deck. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft in the summer of 1914, Igor Sikorsky flew the Ilya Muromets from St. Petersburg to Kyiv and back, setting a world record. During the First World War, these aircraft became the world's first heavy bombers.

Quadcopter and helicopter

Igor Sikorsky also created the first production helicopter, the R-4, or S-47, which Vought-Sikorsky began producing in 1942. It was the first and only helicopter that participated in World War II, in the Pacific theater of operations, as a staff transport and for the evacuation of the wounded. However, it is unlikely that the US military department would have given Igor Sikorsky the courage to experiment with helicopter technology, if it were not for the amazing rotorcraft of Georgy Botezat, who in 1922 began testing his helicopter, which the US military ordered him to. The helicopter was the first to really take off from the ground and could stay in the air. The possibility of vertical flight has thus been proven. Botezata's helicopter was called the "flying octopus" because of its interesting design. It was a quadcopter: four screws were placed at the ends of metal trusses, and the control system was located in the center - exactly like modern radio-controlled drones.

color photo

Color photography appeared at the end of the 19th century, but the pictures of that time were characterized by a shift to one or another part of the spectrum. Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky was one of the best in Russia and, like many of his colleagues around the world, dreamed of achieving the most natural color reproduction. In 1902, Prokudin-Gorsky studied color photography in Germany, under Adolf Miethe, who by that time was a world star in color photography. Returning home, Prokudin-Gorsky began to improve the chemistry of the process and in 1905 patented his own sensitizer, that is, a substance that increases the sensitivity of photographic plates. As a result, he was able to produce exceptional quality negatives. Prokudin-Gorsky organized a number of expeditions across the territory of the Russian Empire, taking pictures of famous people (for example, Leo Tolstoy), and peasants, churches, landscapes, factories - thus creating an amazing collection of colored Russia. Prokudin-Gorsky's demonstrations aroused great interest in the world and prompted other specialists to develop new principles for color printing.

Parachute

As you know, the idea of ​​a parachute was proposed by Leonardo da Vinci, and several centuries later, with the advent of aeronautics, regular jumps from under balloons began: parachutes were hung under them in a partially open state. In 1912, the American Barry was able to leave the plane with such a parachute and, importantly, landed alive. The problem was solved by whoever in what much. For example, the American Stefan Banich made a parachute in the form of an umbrella with telescopic spokes that were attached around the pilot's torso. This design worked, although it was still not very convenient. But the engineer Gleb Kotelnikov decided that it was all about the material, and made his parachute out of silk, packing it in a compact satchel. Kotelnikov patented his invention in France on the eve of World War I. But besides the backpack parachute, he came up with another interesting thing. He tested the opening of the parachute by opening it while the car was moving, which literally stood up in its tracks. So Kotelnikov came up with a brake parachute as an emergency braking system for aircraft.

Theremin

The history of this musical instrument, which makes strange "cosmic" sounds, began with the development of alarms. It was then that a descendant of the French Huguenots, Lev Theremin, in 1919 drew attention to the fact that a change in the position of the body near the antennas of the oscillatory circuits affects the volume and tone of the sound in the control dynamics. Everything else was a matter of technique. And marketing: Theremin showed his musical instrument to the head of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, an enthusiast of the cultural revolution, and then demonstrated it in the States.

The life of Lev Theremin was difficult, he knew both ups and downs, glory, and camps. His musical instrument lives on to this day. The coolest version is Moog Etherwave. Theremin can be heard from the most advanced and quite pop performers. This is truly an invention for all time.

Color TV

Vladimir Zworykin was born into a merchant family in the city of Murom. The boy had the opportunity from childhood to read a lot and to make all sorts of experiments - his father encouraged this passion for science in every possible way. Starting to study in St. Petersburg, he learned about cathode ray tubes and came to the conclusion that the future of television lies precisely in electronic circuits. Zworykin was lucky, he left Russia on time in 1919. He worked for many years and in the early 1930s he patented a transmitting television tube - an iconoscope. Even earlier, he designed one of the variants of the receiving tube - a kinescope. And then, already in the 1940s, he broke the light beam into blue, red and green colors and got color TV. In addition, Zworykin developed a night vision device, an electron microscope, and many other interesting things. He invented all his long life and even in retirement he continued to amaze with his new solutions.

Video recorder

The AMPEX company was created in 1944 by Russian emigrant Alexander Matveevich Ponyatov, who took three letters of his initials for the name and added EX - short for "excellent". At first, Poniatov produced sound recording equipment, but in the early 50s he focused on the development of video recording. By that time, there were already experiments recording a television image, but they required a huge amount of tape. Ponyatov and colleagues proposed to record the signal across the tape, using a block of rotating heads. On November 30, 1956, the first recorded CBS news aired. And in 1960, the company, represented by its leader and founder, received an Oscar for outstanding contribution to the technical equipment of the film and television industry. Fate brought Alexander Poniatov together with interesting people. He was a competitor of Zworykin, Ray Dolby, the creator of the famous noise reduction system, worked with him, and one of the first clients and investors was the famous Bing Crosby. And one more thing: by order of Poniatov, birches were planted near any office - in memory of the Motherland.

Tetris

A long time ago, 30 years ago, the Pentomino puzzle was popular in the USSR: it was necessary to lay various figures consisting of five squares on a field lined in a box. Even collections of problems were published, and the results were discussed. From a mathematical point of view, such a puzzle was an excellent test for a computer. And so Aleksey Pajitnov, a researcher at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, wrote such a program for his Elektronika 60 computer. But there was not enough power, and Alexey removed one cube from the figures, that is, he made a “tetramino”. Well, then the idea came up that the figures fell into the "glass". This is how Tetris was born. It was the first computer game from behind the Iron Curtain, and for many, the first computer game at all. And although many new toys have already appeared, Tetris still attracts with its apparent simplicity and real complexity.

Two decades ago, people could not even dream of such a level of technological development as it exists today. Today it takes only half a day to fly half the globe, modern smartphones are 60,000 times lighter and thousands of times more powerful than the first computers, today agricultural productivity and life expectancy are higher than ever in the history of mankind. Let's try to figure out which inventions have become the most important and, in fact, changed the history of mankind.

1. Cyanide

Although cyanide seems rather controversial to include on this list, the chemical has played an important role in human history. While the gaseous form of cyanide has caused the deaths of millions of people, it is this substance that is the main factor in the extraction of gold and silver from ore. Since the world economy has been tied to the gold standard, cyanide is an important factor in the development of international trade.

2. Plane

Today, no one doubts that the invention of the "metal bird" had one of the greatest impacts on human history by radically reducing the time needed to transport goods or people. The invention of the Wright brothers was enthusiastically received by the public.

3. Anesthesia

Until 1846, any surgical procedure was more like some kind of excruciating torture. Although anesthetics have been used for thousands of years, their earliest forms were nothing more than alcohol or mandrake extract. The invention of modern anesthesia in the form of nitrous oxide and ether allowed doctors to safely operate on patients without the slightest resistance from them (after all, patients did not feel anything).

4. Radio

The origins of radio history are highly controversial. Many claim that Guglielmo Marconi was its inventor. Others claim that it was Nikola Tesla. In any case, these two people have done a lot to enable people to successfully transmit information through radio waves.

5. Phone

The telephone has been one of the most important inventions in our modern world. As with all major inventions, there is still debate about who invented it. One thing is clear: the US Patent Office granted the first telephone patent to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. This patent served as the basis for future research and development of electronic sound transmission over long distances.

6. World Wide Web

While everyone thinks it's a very recent invention, the Internet existed in its archaic form in 1969 when the United States military developed the ARPANET. But it was Tim Berners-Lee who created the web of hyperlinks to documents at the University of Illinois and created the first World Wide Web browser in its relatively modern form.

7. Transistor

Today it seems that picking up the phone and calling someone in Mali, the US or India is very easy, but it would not be possible without transistors. Semiconductor transistors, which amplify electrical signals, have made it possible to send information over long distances. The man who pioneered this research, William Shockley, is credited with creating Silicon Valley.

8. Atomic clock

While this invention may not seem as revolutionary as many of the previous paragraphs, the invention of the atomic clock was crucial in the advancement of science. Using microwave signals emitted by varying electron energy levels, atomic clocks and their accuracy have made possible a wide range of modern modern inventions, including GPS, GLONASS, and the Internet.

9. Steam turbine

The steam turbine of Charles Parsons literally changed the development of mankind, giving impetus to the industrialization of countries and making it possible for ships to quickly overcome the ocean. In 1996 alone, 90% of electricity in the US was generated by steam turbines.

10. Plastic

Despite the ubiquity of plastic in our modern society, it only appeared in the last century. The waterproof and highly pliable material is used in almost every industry, from food packaging to toys and even spacecraft. While most modern plastics are made from petroleum, there are increasing calls to go back to the original version, which was partly organic.

11. Television

Television has had a long and storied history that dates back to the 1920s and continues to this day. This invention has become one of the most popular consumer products around the world - almost 80% of families have a TV.

12. Oil

Most people do not think at all when they fill the tank of their car. Although people have been extracting oil for millennia, the modern oil and gas industry emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century. After the industrialists saw all the advantages of oil products and the amount of energy generated by burning them, they raced to make wells for the extraction of "liquid gold".

13. Internal combustion engine

Without the discovery of the efficiency of combustion of petroleum products, the modern internal combustion engine would not have been possible. Given that it has begun to be used literally everywhere: from cars to agricultural combines and mining machines, these engines have allowed people to replace back-breaking, painstaking and time-consuming work with machines that can do this work much faster. The internal combustion engine also gave people freedom of movement since it was the one used in automobiles.

14. Reinforced concrete

The boom in the construction of high-rise buildings happened only in the middle of the nineteenth century. By embedding steel reinforcing bars (rebars) into concrete before it was poured, people were able to build reinforced concrete artificial structures many times larger in weight and size than before.

There would be far fewer people living on planet Earth today if there were no penicillin. Officially discovered by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, penicillin was one of the most important inventions/discoveries that made the modern world possible. Antibiotics were among the first drugs that were able to fight staphylococci, syphilis and tuberculosis.

16. Refrigerator

Harnessing heat was perhaps the most important discovery to date, but it took many millennia. Although people have long used ice for cooling, its practicality and availability has been limited. In the nineteenth century, scientists invented artificial refrigeration using chemicals. By the early 1900s, almost every meatpacking plant and major food distributor was using artificial refrigeration to preserve food.

17. Pasteurization

Half a century before the discovery of penicillin, a new process discovered by Louis Pasteur, pasteurization, or heating food (originally beer, wine, and dairy products) to a temperature high enough to kill most spoilage bacteria, helped save many lives. Unlike sterilization, which kills all bacteria, pasteurization only reduces the number of potential pathogens to a level that makes most foods edible without fear of contamination, while still preserving the taste of the food.

18. Solar battery

Just as the oil industry sparked a boom in the industry as a whole, the invention of the solar battery allowed people to use a renewable form of energy in a much more efficient way. The first practical solar battery was developed in 1954 by Bell Telephone scientists, but today the popularity and efficiency of solar panels has increased dramatically.

19. Microprocessor

Today, people would have to forget about their laptop and smartphone if the microprocessor had not been invented. One of the most widely known supercomputers, ENIAC, was built in 1946 and weighed 27,215 tons. Intel engineer Ted Hoff created the first microprocessor in 1971, putting all the functions of a supercomputer into one tiny chip, making portable computers possible.

20. Laser

The stimulated light emission amplifier or laser was invented in 1960 by Theodor Meyman. Modern lasers are used in a variety of inventions, including laser cutters, barcode scanners, and surgical equipment.

21. Nitrogen fixation

Although it may seem overly pompous, nitrogen fixation, or fixation of molecular atmospheric nitrogen, is "responsible" for the explosion of the human population. By converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, the production of highly effective fertilizers was made possible, which increased agricultural production.

22. Conveyor

Today it is difficult to overestimate the importance of assembly lines. Before their invention, all products were made by hand. The assembly line or assembly line allowed for the development of large-scale production of the same parts, greatly reducing the time it took to create a new product.

23. Oral contraceptives

Although the pill and the pill has been one of the main methods of medicine that has been around for thousands of years, the invention of the oral contraceptive has been one of the most significant innovations. It was this invention that became the impetus for the sexual revolution.

24. Mobile phone / smartphone

Now, many of you are probably reading this article from your smartphone. Thanks to Motorola, back in 1973, they released the first wireless pocket mobile phone, which weighed as much as 2 kg and took as much as 10 hours to recharge. To make matters worse, at that time one could only chat quietly for 30 minutes.

25. Electricity

Most modern inventions would simply be impossible without electricity. Pioneers such as William Gilbert and Benjamin Franklin laid the initial foundation upon which inventors such as Volt and Faraday launched the second industrial revolution.

As Plato said, science rests on sensations. The 10 random scientific discoveries below are another confirmation of this. Of course, no one canceled scientific schools, scientific work, and in general whole lives devoted to science, but sometimes luck and chance can also do their job.

Penicillin

The invention of penicillin - a whole group of antibiotics that can treat many bacterial infections - is one of the old scientific legends, but in fact it is just a story about dirty dishes. Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming decided to interrupt the laboratory study of staphylococcus aureus in the laboratory and took a month's leave. Upon arrival, he discovered a strange mold on the left dishes with bacteria - a mold that killed all the bacteria.

Microwave

Sometimes a light snack is enough for a scientific discovery. American engineer Percy Spencer, who worked for the Raytheon company, once, passing by a magnetron (a vacuum tube that emitted microwaves), noticed that the chocolate in his pocket had melted. In 1945, after a series of experiments (including with an exploding egg), Spencer invented the first microwave oven. The first microwave ovens, like the first computers, looked bulky and unrealistic, but in 1967 compact microwave ovens began to appear in American homes.

Velcro

Not only a snack can be useful for science, but also a walk in the fresh air. While hiking in the mountains in 1941, Swiss engineer George Mestral noticed a burdock that had stuck to his pants and his dog's fur. On closer examination, he saw that the hooks of the burdock clung to everything that had the shape of a loop. This is how Velcro was born. In English, it sounds like "Velcro", which is a combination of the words "velvet" (velveteen) and "crochet" (crochet). The most notable user of Velcro in the 60s was NASA, using them in astronaut suits and to secure objects in zero gravity.

The Big Bang Theory

The discovery of the prevailing theory of the origin of the universe today began with noise like radio interference. In 1964, while working with the Holmdel antenna (a large horn-shaped antenna used as a radio telescope in the 1960s), astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias heard background noise that puzzled them greatly. Discarding most of the existing causes of noise, they turned to the theory of Robert Dicke, according to which the radiation remnants from the Big Bang that formed the Universe became background cosmic radiation. 50 kilometers from Wilson and Penzias, at Princeton University, Dicke himself was looking for this background radiation, and when he heard about their discovery, he told his colleagues: “Guys, it looks like a sensation.” Wilson and Penzias later received the Nobel Prize.

Teflon

In 1938, scientist Roy Plunkett was working on how to make refrigerators more suitable for the home and replace the refrigerant then available, which consisted mainly of ammonia, sulfur dioxide and propane. After he opened a container containing one of the samples he was working on, Plunkett discovered that the gas inside had evaporated, leaving behind a strange slippery rosin that was resistant to high temperatures. In the 1940s, this material was used in a nuclear weapons project, and a decade later, in the automotive industry. And only in the 60s they began to use Teflon in the usual way for us - for non-stick cookware.

Vulcanizate

In the 1830s, vegetable rubber was used to make water-repellent boots, but it had one big problem - it was unstable to high and low temperatures. It was believed that rubber had no future, but Charles Goodyear disagreed. After years of trying to make rubber more reliable, the scientist stumbled upon what would become his greatest discovery, quite by accident. In 1839, while demonstrating one of his latest experiments, Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber on a hot stove. The result was a charred leather-like substance in an elastic band. Thus, the rubber became resistant to temperatures. Goodyear did not profit from his invention, and died leaving huge debts. Already 40 years after his death, his name was taken by the still famous Goodyear company.

Coca Cola

The inventor of Coca-Cola was not a businessman, a sweets dealer or anyone else who dreamed of getting rich. John Pemberton just wanted to invent a normal cure for headaches. A pharmacist by profession, he used two ingredients: coca leaves and kola nut. When his lab assistant accidentally mixed them with sparkling water, the world saw the first Coca-Cola. Unfortunately, Pemberton died before his potion became one of the most popular drinks on Earth.

Radioactivity

Bad weather can also lead to a scientific discovery. In 1896, French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel conducted an experiment on a crystal enriched with uranium. He believed that sunlight was the reason why the crystal burned its image on the photographic plate. When the sun disappeared, Becquerel decided to pack up his things so that he could continue the experiment on another clear day. A few days later he took the crystal out of his desk drawer, but the image on the photographic plate on top was, as he described, hazy. The crystal emitted rays that clouded the plate. Becquerel did not think about the name of this phenomenon and suggested that two colleagues, Pierre and Marie Curie, continue the experiment.

Viagra

Angina pectoris is a common name for chest pain, especially spasms in the coronary arteries. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has developed a pill called UK92480 to constrict these arteries and relieve pain. However, the pill, which failed in its original purpose, had a very strong side effect (you can probably guess which one) and was later renamed Viagra. Pfizer sold these little blue pills last year for $288 million.

smart dust

Housework can be irritating at times, especially when the dust is all over your face. Jamie Link, a chemist at the University of California at San Diego, has been working on one silicon chip. When it accidentally crashed, the tiny pieces still continued to send out signals, acting as little sensors. These small, self-assembled particles she dubbed "smart dust." Today, "smart dust" has a huge potential, especially in the fight against tumors in the body.