presentation about inventions

20 inventions that changed the world

From the wheel 5,500 years ago to the birth control pill, these 20 inventions had huge ramifications and have helped humans shape the world around us.

2. Printing press

3. penicillin, 5. light bulb, 6. telephone, 7. internal combustion engine, 8. contraceptives, 9. internet, 11. use of fire, 12. concrete, 13. magnifying glass, 14. batteries, 15. marine chronometer, 16. airplane, 17. refrigerator, 18. nuclear energy, 19. vaccines.

Humans are naturally curious and creative, two traits that have led our species to many scientific and technological breakthroughs. Since our earliest ancestors bashed a rock on the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, humans have continued to innovate. From the debut of the wheel to the launch of Mars rovers, several of these key advancements stand out as especially revolutionary. Some inventions are thanks to one eureka moment, but most of our most pioneering inventions were the work of several innovative thinkers who made incremental improvements over many years. Here, we explore 20 of the most important inventions of all time, along with the science behind the inventions and how they came about.

Before the invention of the wheel in 3500 B.C., humans were severely limited in how much stuff we could transport over land, and how far. The wheel itself wasn't the most difficult part of "inventing the wheel." When it came time to connect a non-moving platform to that rolling cylinder, things got tricky, according to David Anthony, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Hartwick College.

"The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept," Anthony previously told Live Science . "But then making it was also difficult." For instance, the holes at the center of the wheels and the ends of the fixed axles had to be nearly perfectly round and smooth, he said. The size of the axle was also a critical factor, as was its snugness inside the hole (not too tight, but not too loose, either).

The hard work paid off, big time. Wheeled carts facilitated agriculture and commerce by enabling the transportation of goods to and from markets, as well as easing the burdens of people travelling great distances. Now, wheels are vital to our way of life, found in everything from clocks to vehicles to turbines.

David Anthony is professor emeritus and curator emeritus of anthropology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. He has done extensive archaeological fieldwork in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Anthony is the author of "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" (Princeton, 2007) and has co-authored studies including the finding that humans first rode horses 5,000 years ago .

German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press sometime between 1440 and 1450. Key to its development was the hand mold, a new molding technique that enabled the rapid creation of large quantities of metal movable type. Though others before him — including inventors in China and Korea — had developed movable type made from metal, Gutenberg was the first to create a mechanized process that transferred the ink (which he made from linseed oil and soot) from the movable type to paper.

With this movable type process, printing presses exponentially increased the speed with which book copies could be made, and thus they led to the rapid and widespread dissemination of knowledge for the first time in history. In her book “ The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ” (Cambridge University Press, 2012), late historian Elizabeth L. Eisenstein wrote, “printers’ workshops would be found in every important municipal center by 1500.”  It has been estimated that up to twenty million volumes had been printed in Western Europe by 1500, although Eisenstein estimates that it was around eight million.

Among other things, the printing press permitted wider access to the Bible, which in turn led to alternative interpretations, including that of Martin Luther, whose "95 Theses" a document printed by the hundred-thousand sparked the Protestant Reformation.

It's one of the most famous discovery stories in history. In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-filled Petri dish in his laboratory with its lid accidentally ajar. The sample had become contaminated with a mold, and everywhere the mold was, the bacteria was dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus Penicillium, and over the next two decades, chemists purified it and developed the drug penicillin , which fights a huge number of bacterial infections in humans without harming the humans themselves.

Penicillin was being mass-produced and advertised by 1944. This poster attached to a curbside mailbox advised World War II servicemen to take the drug to rid themselves of venereal disease.

About 1 in 10 people have an allergic reaction to the antibiotic , according to a study published in 2003 in the journal Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology. Even so, most of those people go on to be able to tolerate the drug, researchers said.

Related: What causes allergies?

Ancient mariners used the stars for navigation, but this method didn’t work during the day or on cloudy nights, making it dangerous to travel far from land. 

The first compass was invented in China during the Han dynasty between the 2nd Century B.C. and 1st Century A.D.; it was made of lodestone, a naturally-magnetized iron ore, the attractive properties of which they had been studying for centuries. However, it was used for navigation for the first time during the Song Dynasty, between the 11th and 12th centuries,

Soon after, the technology to the West through nautical contact. The compass enabled mariners to navigate safely far from land, opening up the world for exploration and the subsequent development of global trade. An instrument still widely used today, the compass has transformed our knowledge and understanding of the Earth forever.

The invention of the light bulb transformed our world by removing our dependence on natural light, allowing us to be productive at any time, day or night.  Several inventors were instrumental in developing this revolutionary technology throughout the 1800s; Thomas Edison is credited as the primary inventor because he created a completely functional lighting system, including a generator and wiring as well as a carbon-filament bulb like the one above, in 1879.

As well as initiating the introduction of electricity in homes throughout the Western world, this invention also had a rather unexpected consequence of changing people's sleep patterns . Instead of going to bed at nightfall (having nothing else to do) and sleeping in segments throughout the night separated by periods of wakefulness, we now stay up except for the 7 to 8 hours allotted for sleep, and, ideally, we sleep all in one go.

Several inventors did pioneering work on electronic voice transmission — many of whom later filed intellectual property lawsuits when telephone use exploded — but it was Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell who was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone on March 7, 1876 (his patent drawing is pictured above). Three days later, Bell made the first telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson, saying "Mr Watson, come here — I want to see you," according to author A. Edward Evenson in his book, “ The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876: The Elisha Gray-Alexander Bell Controversy and Its Many Players ” (McFarland, 2015).

Bell’s inspiration for the telephone was influenced by his family. His father taught speech elocution and specialized in teaching the deaf speak, his mother, an accomplished musician, lost her hearing in later life and his wife Mabel, who he married in 1877, had been deaf since the age of five, according to Evenson. The invention quickly took off and revolutionized global business and communication. When Bell died on Aug. 2, 1922, all telephone service in the United States and Canada was stopped for one minute to honor him.

In these engines, the combustion of fuel releases a high-temperature gas, which, as it expands, applies a force to a piston, moving it. Thus, combustion engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Decades of engineering by many scientists went into designing the internal combustion engine, which took its (essentially) modern form in the latter half of the 19th century. The engine ushered in the Industrial Age, as well as enabling the invention of a huge variety of machines, including modern cars and aircraft.

Pictured are the operating steps of a four-stroke internal combustion engine. The strokes are as follows: 1) Intake stroke — air and vaporised fuel are drawn in. 2) Compression stroke - fuel vapor and air are compressed and ignited. 3) Power stroke — fuel combusts and the piston is pushed downwards, powering the machine. 4) Exhaust stroke — exhaust is driven out.

Not only have birth control pills, condoms and other forms of contraception sparked a sexual revolution in the developed world by allowing men and women to have sex for leisure rather than procreation, they have also drastically reduced the average number of offspring per woman in countries where they are used. With fewer mouths to feed, modern families have achieved higher standards of living and can provide better for each child. Meanwhile, on the global scale, contraceptives are helping the human population gradually level off; our number will probably stabilize by the end of the century. Certain contraceptives, such as condoms, also curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Natural and herbal contraception has been used for millennia. Condoms or ‘sheaths’ have existed in one form or another since ancient times, according to scholar Jessica Borge in her book “ Protective Practices: A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business ” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), with the rubber condom developed in the 19th century. Meanwhile, the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive pill in the United States in 1960 and by 1965, more than 6.5 million American women were on the pill, according to author Jonathan Eig in his book, “The Birth of the Pill: How Four Pioneers Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015).  

Scientists are continuing to make advancements in birth control, with some labs even pursuing a male form of "the pill." A permanent birth-control implant called Essure was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, though in 2016, the FDA warned the implant would need stronger warnings to tell users about serious risks of using Essure. 

Related: 7 surprising facts about the pill

The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that is used by billions of people worldwide. In the 1960s, a team of computer scientists working for the U.S. Defense Department's ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) built a communications network to connect the computers in the agency, called ARPANET, the predecessor of the internet. It used a method of data transmission called "packet switching", developed by computer scientist and team member Lawrence Roberts, based on prior work of other computer scientists. 

This technology was progressed in the 1970s by scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, who developed the crucial communication protocols for the internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), according to computer scientist Harry R. Lewis in his book “ Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science ” (MIT Press, 2021). For this, Kahn and Cerf are often credited as inventors of the internet”.

In 1989, the internet evolved further thanks to the invention of the World Wide Web by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research). According to CERN , "the basic idea of the WWW was to merge the evolving technologies of computers, data networks and hypertext into a powerful and easy to use global information system." The development of the WWW opened up the world of the internet to everybody and connected the world in a way that it had never been before.  

Related: Inventor of World Wide Web snags computer science's top prize

This key invention dates back more than 2,000 years to the Ancient Roman period and became possible only after humans developed the ability to cast and shape metal. Previously, wood structures had to be built by interlocking adjacent boards geometrically a much more arduous construction process.

Until the 1790s and early 1800s, hand-wrought nails were the norm, with a blacksmith heating a square iron rod and then hammering it on four sides to create a point, according to the University of Vermont . Nail-making machines came online between the 1790s and the early 1800s. Technology for crafting nails continued to advance; After Henry Bessemer developed a process to mass-produce steel from iron, the iron nails of yesteryear slowly waned and by 1886, 10 percent of U.S. nails were created from soft steel wire, according to the University of Vermont. By 1913, 90 percent of nails produced in the U.S. were steel wire.

Meanwhile, the invention of the screw - a stronger but harder-to-insert fastener -  is usually ascribed to the Greek scholar Archimedes in the third century B.C., but was probably invented by the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas of Tarentum, according to David Blockley in his book “ Engineering: A Very Short Introduction ” (Oxford University Press, 2012).

The use of fire is one of humankind's most powerful early inventions and radically changed the way our ancient ancestors lived. Offering warmth and the ability to cook foods such as meat, the campfire was also a social gathering place. Fire also provided some protection against predators. 

The exact date fire was discovered has long remained a mystery, with some studies suggesting it was first used by hominins in Kenya 1 million years ago to cook meat. Other evidence suggests that Neanderthals in Europe and Asia harnessed fire , while Homo sapiens evolving in Africa mastered the skill of creating fire. More recently, archaeologists in Israel found evidence of hominin fire use dating to 1.5 million to 2 million years ago.

Ancient Romans are credited as one of the first societies to use concrete in architecture, with Roman bathhouses and iconic sites such as the Colosseumand Pantheon dome constructed using concrete mixed with volcanic ash, lime, and seawater. Incredibly, many of these ancient buildings are not only standing, but remain in good condition some 2,000 years later — a testament to the longevity of Roman concrete . However, the ancient Egyptians used a crude form of concrete in their buildings much earlier in 3000 B.C., employing forms of concrete mixed with ash and salt water to create mortar. One study concluded that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza might have been built using concrete . Concrete is strong in compression but breaks easily in tension, so the invention of reinforced steel-concrete toward the end of the 19th century in France, which lends concrete some of steel's tensile strength, enabled concrete to be used more widely in construction.

Franciscan friar and Oxford University scholar Roger Bacon first developed the magnifying glass in 1268. Sometimes dubbed "Britain's first scientist,"' Bacon's magnifying glass built on research by Muslim scholars .

However, the use of optical tools dates back much further. Evidence suggests that as early as 700 B.C., people in ancient Egypt noticed that they could look through crystals to improve vision.

The first battery dates back to 1800, when Italian physicist Alessandro Volta wrapped stacked discs of copper and zinc in a cloth, submerged it in salty water and discovered that it conducted energy. In 1802, Scottish professor William Cruickshank invented a variation of Volta's design known as the trough battery , which consisted of 50 discs of copper and zinc in a wooden box filled with a salt solution to conduct energy. However, it was French physicist Gaston Planté who invented the first practically used battery, in 1859. Modern variations on Planté's rechargeable lead-acid battery are still used in cars today.

The 15th century marked the beginning of the great voyages of discovery by adventurers and sea merchants and the development of a global ocean trade network . Trading vessels carried highly prized silk, spices, salt, wine and tea across often-treacherous seas for months on end. After the loss of four ships at sea in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 , seafarers realized they needed an accurate way to determine longitude when out of sight of land.

In 1714, the British parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could solve the problem. Carpenter John Harrison won the bounty in 1735 with his marine chronometer. What is perhaps even more remarkable is that Harrison was a self-taught clockmaker. His ingenious timekeeping device was powered by the rocking motion of the ship rather than by gravity and could be used by sailors to accurately calculate longitude at sea.

The ability for humans to fly has captured the imagination of inventors for centuries, with the first human-operated flight taking place in 1783 when Joseph-Michael and Jacques-Ètienne Montgolfier took to the skies in a hot air balloon. In 1853 British engineer George Cayley designed the first glider to successfully take flight, but it wasn’t until 1903 that Orville and Wilbur Wright's plane became the first airplane to have a successful voyage. It not only took off from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina using its own power; it flew and landed without destruction, unlike many earlier aircraft inventions. The Wright brothers were inspired by watching' birds in flight. The glider took a page from birds' wings but had a 32-foot (10 meters) wingspan.

Refrigeration in some form has been around for thousands of years. Depending on the climate, ice or cold water was used to keep food cold in ancient times. But artificial refrigeration didn't come until 1748, when the physician William Cullen  first demonstrated evaporative cooling. Further breakthroughs came in 1834, when a vapor-compression system was developed by American engineer Jacob Perkins . In 1876, German engineer Carl von Linde came up with a process of liquifying the gas, ushering in the era of commercial refrigeration. In 1913, American engineer Fred Wolf invented the first domestic refrigerator , and as demand for fresh produce grew, so did the number of households with refrigerators.

Nuclear energy was first discovered in the 1930s by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi , who found that bombarding atoms with neutrons could split them, generating huge amounts of energy. He went on to develop the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. This successful experiment led to the development of several nuclear plants in the 1950s, with Idaho launching the first nuclear plant in 1951 with electricity produced from atomic energy at its Experimental Breeder Reactor I site. Obninsk in the former Soviet Union became the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world in 1954, while Shippingport nuclear plant, Pennsylvania became the first commercial nuclear plant in 1957.

Nuclear power remains widely used around the world today, generating approximately 10% of global energy .

One problem is that existing nuclear power plants use fission to split atoms, and this produces radioactive substances that take ages to decay. And the risks of nuclear disasters, such as those at Chernobyl and the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, highlight the challenges of fission-based nuclear power.

So scientists are working to create usable nuclear fusion reactors, which could theoretically generate clean, limitless energy. In 2022, scientists reported a minor breakthrough: a fusion reactor that generated more energy than was put into it. However, we're still a long way from a usable fusion reactor , experts say.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 2 million to 3 million lives are saved annually thanks to vaccinations against contagious diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and measles.

The earliest rudimentary vaccination is thought to date back to the 10th century in China, when people inoculated small scratches in the skin with small doses of smallpox to provide protection against the disease. But in 1796, English physician Edward Jenner discovered that milkmaids rarely caught or died of smallpox because they were previously infected by the cowpox virus , also called Vaccinia. So he used cowpox to develop a smallpox vaccine. He inoculated an 8-year-old boy with cowpox and then with smallpox, and the boy never caught the deadly scourge. Jenner's experiment led to the creation of a smallpox vaccine and his work is regarded as the start of immunology. In 1980, smallpox was declared officially eradicated by WHO. But scientists continue to develop new life-saving vaccines — most notably, the coronavirus vaccines that played a large role in combatting the pandemic .

Like many famous inventions, the X-ray was discovered by accident. In 1895, German engineer and physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was undertaking a two-month study into the potential of radiation. In an experiment testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass, he noticed that the radiation was able to pass through screens of considerable thickness, leaving a shadow of solid objects. He soon discovered that X-rays could pass through human tissues to show a clear picture of the skeleton and organs. A year later, a group of physicians took the earliest X-rays on patients . These observations led to the development of radiology as we know it today and has since helped medical professionals diagnose broken bones, tumors, organ failures and more.

Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct the location of Edison's lab. It was Menlo Park, New Jersey, not Menlo Park, California.

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Jessica is a former staff writer for History of Royals and All About History magazines. She has both a Bachelor and Master's degree in History from the University of Winchester , with dissertations on 'The Power of Dress' in the French court between the mid-sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and 'Abdicating Queens': an analysis of the contemporary and modern images of Juana la Loca, Mary, Queen of Scots and Christina, Queen of Sweden.'

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The 10 Inventions that Changed the World

The U.S. librarian of Congress ranks history's most important innovations.

Thomas Edison liked to say that he never failed. He succeeded every now and again with an invention that would change the world. The rest of the time, he tried thousands of other things with only one fault—that they would never work.

That’s the sort of spirit and tenacity that leads to progress, says Carla Hayden , the U.S. librarian of Congress. The library keeps archives of many of America’s copyrights and blueprints, so National Geographic asked Hayden to list what she considers 10 of the most meaningful advances in history—the inventions and innovations responsible for the trappings of modern life.

Ranking innovations is more art than science. Can you really compare a camera to an airplane? But while progress is incremental, it’s also exponential; it builds on itself. The printing press allowed literacy to spread and thinkers to share ideas and, thus, invent more things.

Modern inventions tend more toward improving than transforming: an app that connects the world in a better way, planes that fly farther, faster. But there’s still room, every so often, for dramatic advances like, say, 3-D printing or the Internet. “There will be more great leaps,” says Hayden. “We have a momentum and acceleration I think we can all feel.”

Top 10 innovations

• Printing press
• Personal computer
• Refrigeration

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• SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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Innovation | December 26, 2023

Seven Scientific Discoveries From 2023 That Could Lead to New Inventions

Biologists learned lots about animals and plants this year, and their findings could inspire better robots, medicine and environmental technologies

Carlyn Kranking

Assistant Editor, Science and Innovation

When brainstorming ways to improve human life, inventors often look to nature. Animals and plants, which evolved over millennia to thrive in their environments, provide an excellent blueprint for innovation.

This year, for example, scientists from China and Switzerland debuted a drug-delivery patch that resembles the suckers of an octopus . The suction cup-shaped device adheres to the inside of a patient’s cheek and infuses medicine orally, with no needle required. And inspired by the squishy sea cucumber, engineers developed a magnetic, shape-shifting robot that can liquefy when heated and re-form as it cools. One day, the invention could have medical applications, such as removing harmful items from a patient’s stomach; it might also help assemble hard-to-reach circuits or act as a universal screw.

But before any of these inventions could come to be, scientists first had to learn something about the natural world. In 2023, researchers described proteins in caterpillar venom, aerodynamic patterns on monarch butterflies and reflective materials in crustaceans’ eyes that could hold lessons for engineers. These breakthroughs of today could inspire the technology of tomorrow.

Here are seven scientific discoveries from this year that could lead to new inventions.

Asp caterpillar venom punches holes in cell walls

Though furry asp caterpillars might look like harmless, walking toupees , you should resist any urge to reach out and pet one. Beneath their soft exteriors, asp caterpillars hide a menacing network of venom-filled spines. Though the larval moths grow little more than an inch long , their sting can put an adult human in the hospital . This year, scientists analyzed how their powerful toxin works.

It turns out, asp caterpillar venom contains an unusual, shape-shifting protein , according to a study published in July in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . When the toxin reaches the outer surface of a cell, this protein forms into a doughnut-like shape, then punches a hole through the cell wall.

Toxins made by bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella enter cells in a similar manner. So the scientists suggest that some kind of bacteria inserted its genes into an asp caterpillar’s DNA long ago. Then, once the caterpillar grew into an adult moth, it passed these genes on to its offspring.

By mimicking the hole-punching nature of the caterpillar’s proteins, engineers could develop medicine delivery strategies that “get drugs inside cells where they need to work,” study co-author Andrew Walker , a molecular bioscientist at the University of Queensland in Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ’s Antonia O’Flaherty. “We might be able to engineer these kinds of toxins to target cancer cells or to target pathogens while leaving human cells alone.”

That work could take at least one or two decades. But this area of research could mean that one day, the asp caterpillar’s venom could bring not only pain but relief.

Hibernating bears do not get blood clots

From long airplane rides to bed rest after surgery, extended sedentary periods can bend veins, leading blood to pool and increasing the risk for clotting, or deep vein thrombosis . But hibernating bears lie largely still for months on end—and these masters of inactivity do not get blood clots.

To find out how they do it, scientists tracked down brown bears in Sweden during the winter and summer months. They tranquilized the hulking creatures and took blood samples at both times of year. In a makeshift lab in the field, they discovered one protein showed a significant seasonal change: Called HSP47, it was present in high levels during the summers but nearly nonexistent during hibernation, per a paper published in Science in April.

Based on past research, the scientists understood that HSP47 was involved in helping platelets bind to white blood cells to fight infections. So, by decreasing levels of the protein during hibernation, it seemed like the bears were establishing a safeguard against blood clots.

Informed by what they’d seen in bears, the team turned to human subjects. They measured levels of HSP47 in people with spinal cord injuries, who remain sedentary for long periods of time but do not struggle with thrombosis. Sure enough, their levels of HSP47 were lower than average. And when the researchers had ten volunteers spend 27 days on bed rest, they observed a drop in this clot-producing protein over that time.

Understanding HSP47 could have medical implications. It might help doctors determine who is at an increased risk for thrombosis. Or it could provide avenues for preventive treatment in cancer patients and those recovering from surgery, who would be more likely to develop blood clots.

“The ideal treatment for deep vein thrombosis would prevent blood clots from forming where they aren’t supposed to, while not preventing your body’s normal blood clotting machinery,” Kim Martinod , a biomedical scientist at KU Leuven in Belgium, said to Science ’s Elizabeth Pennisi. “This has the potential to be just that.”

Some crustaceans have shiny eyes that help them hide from predators

To survive in the ocean, lots of creatures opt for camouflage. But some take it to another level: Ghostly animals essentially hide from the light itself, with transparent bodies that all but disappear from view. Glass squid use this strategy, along with larval forms of several fish , but it has one pitfall. The creatures’ eyes reflect light, creating a bit of shine that can give away their location to a predator. Transparent eyes simply wouldn’t function since certain dark pigments are essential for vision.

Some shrimp and prawn larvae, however, have evolved a way around this shortcoming. Their eyes are covered with a sheet of light-manipulating glass that effectively matches their eyeshine to the color of surrounding water. In this way, the tiny crustaceans can become invisible.

In a paper published in Science in February, researchers examined the complex material that forms this eye-shielding glass. It’s actually composed of tiny spheres, each just billionths of a meter wide, made of a substance called isoxanthopterin.

These spheres, which reflect light like miniature disco balls, form a disorganized array with gaps in between them, so the crustaceans can still see. The glassy shield can reflect different colors of light—from deep blue to yellow green—based on the animal’s camouflage needs. In lab experiments , prawns exposed to hours of sunlight had yellow reflective eyes, but those left in the dark overnight instead reflected green. Interestingly, the size and arrangement of the spheres controlled the color of light they reflected, and that color was consistent across all viewing angles.

With further research on these little spheres, researchers could uncover ways to improve light-manipulating technologies in solar panels, remote sensing and communications, according to a perspective accompanying the paper.

“There is currently a great interest in finding organic, biocompatible, high-refractive-index materials as replacements for inorganic materials in pigments, cosmetics and other optical materials,” Benjamin Palmer , a co-author of the study and a chemist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, told New Scientist ’s Alice Klein.

Or, because the tiny glass spheres create a uniform color, the structures could inspire environmentally friendly paints or even nail polish .

Monarch butterflies get extra lift from spots on their wings

The monarch butterfly’s death-defying migration is in a class of its own. No other butterfly species is known to complete a two-way trip, heading south for the winter then returning north as temperatures warm, like birds do. The insects might cover 100 miles in a single day , clocking a total distance of up to 3,000 miles before they reach their final destinations. To save energy, they’ll often ride on air currents. And, according to a study published in PLOS One in June, the butterflies’ wing patterns might also give them a boost .

As monarchs fly, the patchwork of dark and light colors on the edges of their wings creates an uneven pattern of heating and cooling, per the study. With the dark areas slightly warmer and the white parts slightly cooler, tiny, swirling pockets of air can form around the spots. These eddies may provide some extra lift for the insects and reduce drag on their wings by shifting how air flows past the butterfly.

Comparing spot size across monarchs and other species supported this idea. Butterflies that didn’t migrate had smaller white spots than monarchs, as did certain nonmigratory monarchs, which belong to generations born in the summer that don’t survive to see migration time in the fall.

Mimicking the monarchs’ white spots could help engineers create more efficient drones, the researchers say.

“Your drone would be able to carry more, because this coloration helps them gain extra lift,” co-author Mostafa Hassanalian , a mechanical engineer at New Mexico Tech who has created drones from taxidermy birds , said to Popular Science ’s Zayna Syed.

The research shows that even subtle changes in coloration can make a big difference. Successful butterflies that made it to Mexico had white spots that were larger by just 3 percent, compared with the ones that ended their migratory journeys in the southern United States. Though this number may seem low, it can hold major consequences for the monarchs, co-author Andy Davis , an animal ecologist at the University of Georgia, told National Geographic ’s Jason Bittel. “That could be the difference between life and death during the migration,” he said.

Desert plant pulls moisture from the air with special salts

When it comes to eking out a living without much water, desert-dwelling organisms are the masters of innovation. Some animals, such as the Gila monster , have become adept at storing water within their bodies. And plants can grow deep-reaching roots to get a drink from far underground.

But one dry-adapted plant turns to another source to gain moisture: the air. Spindly shrubs called athel tamarisks draw salty water from the soil and excrete the salt from their leaves. Then, at night, these crystals allow them to collect water from the air , according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in October.

Scientists snipped a branch from the athel tamarisk and brought it back to their lab. They placed it in an environmentally controlled chamber meant to mimic desert conditions: 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 percent humidity. After two hours, the branch, with the salt crystals on its leaves, had gained 15 milligrams of water. When they tested the same branch without its salt, it collected only 1.6 milligrams.

The team examined the salt’s components and found it contained at least ten different materials, which together allowed it to pull water from the air, even at relatively low humidities of 55 percent. One of these components was lithium sulfate, which could gather water at the lowest humidities.

These salts, being naturally produced by the plant, are likely to be environmentally safe, the authors write. Identifying them could help engineers improve practices for pulling moisture from the air in water-strapped regions. Cloud-seeding, a process that adds crystals to clouds to prompt them to create rain, is already used in nations such as the United Arab Emirates to fight dry conditions and in Pakistan to mitigate smog .

“This holds the promise of revolutionizing cloud-seeding practices by rendering them more effective and environmentally friendly, while also aligning with our responsibility to use the planet’s scarce water resources wisely,” Marieh Al-Handawi , a chemist at New York University Abu Dhabi and lead author of the study, said in a statement .

Bugs called sharpshooters fling their pee to save energy

Tiny insects called sharpshooters drink up to 300 times their own body weight each day. They exclusively ingest xylem sap from plants—a low-energy substance that’s 99 percent water—so they have to get rid of plenty of excess liquid. As a result, the bugs urinate almost constantly.

But the way that happens is surprising: A sharpshooter creates a droplet of urine on top of a flexible appendage called an anal stylus. The stylus rotates along a hinge, then catapults the pee away from the bug at a high speed .

In a study published in Nature Communications in February, scientists found that, oddly enough, the drops of pee moved through the air 40 percent faster than the stylus did. This feat, in which a projectile flies more quickly than its launching device, is called “superpropulsion.”

Through slow-motion video and microscopy, the researchers found a sharpshooter used its stylus to compress the droplet, creating surface tension that stores energy until the drop is released at the proper moment—kind of like how a diver times their jump with a bounce of the board to gain extra lift.

To scientists, this ability is fascinating, as it sets sharpshooters apart from all other animals: No other species has been documented to achieve superpropulsion.

But to the bugs, this odd tactic has a more practical benefit. By flinging droplets instead of producing a pee stream, sharpshooters save energy—pelting pee is actually four to eight times more efficient than the alternative, the researchers found.

Engineers could take a hint from sharpshooters—the mechanisms used by the bugs could lead to better ways to remove water from electronic devices; for example, a smartwatch that can eject liquid through speaker vibrations. Perhaps superpropulsion could inspire technologies that defog the surfaces of goggles or glasses by vibrating them, as well.

Bowhead whales can repair their DNA, and in doing so, increase their cancer resistance

In the animal kingdom, the rate of cancer is mysterious: As a matter of statistics, larger animals, which have more cells in total, should get cancer more frequently than smaller ones. But looking at elephants and whales, that isn’t the case—respectively, these massive creatures have roughly 100 and 1,000 times the number of cells humans do, but their rates of cancer are much lower.

This inconsistency, called Peto’s paradox, has long puzzled scientists. Past research revealed a gene in elephants that seems to suppress tumors, hinting at an answer to the problem. This year, scientists found two proteins in bowhead whales that could be linked to DNA repair, increasing the animals’ cancer resistance, according to a preprint paper published in bioRxiv in May.

Bowhead whales are the longest-lived mammals on Earth , with a life span that can exceed 200 years. The research suggests the whales’ ability to repair DNA might be one of the keys to their longevity.

In the study, researchers severed both strands of the DNA molecule in cells from humans, cows, mice and bowhead whales. This kind of damage, called a “double-strand break,” is known to increase cancer risk. More than two times as many bowhead whale cells were able to repair their DNA, compared with the cells of any other species. And the whale cells did a much better job at fixing the DNA accurately—the human, cow and mouse cells were often sloppy with repairs, making incorrect additions or deletions to the DNA sequence. Such mistakes can also raise the risk of cancer.

The team found that proteins called CIRBP and RPA2 were much more common in bowhead whales and played a role in this gene repair. Perhaps, scientists say, regulating such proteins in humans could mitigate damage to DNA .

“We probably have the solution to cancer medicine out there in nature already,” Orsolya Vincze , an evolutionary ecologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research who was not involved in the study, told Science News ’ Meghan Rosen. “We just have to find it.”

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Carlyn Kranking is the assistant web editor for science and innovation.

Inventions and Innovations

Apr 04, 2019

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Inventions and Innovations. Chapter 8 Section 1. Industrial Revolution. A long term effort to increase production by using machines rather than the power of humans or animals Began in Britain in the 1700s Later spread to the U.S.

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Inventions and Innovations Chapter 8 Section 1

Industrial Revolution • A long term effort to increase production by using machines rather than the power of humans or animals • Began in Britain in the 1700s • Later spread to the U.S.

American inventions and new technologies that came about during the Industrial Revolution • Steamboats, cotton gins, steam shovel, interchangeable parts, mechanized cotton mill, canning factory, internal combustion engine, electromagnet, etc…

Interchangeable Parts • All parts of a product are made to an exact standard • Products are no longer unique

Cotton Gin • A machine that separates the seeds from raw cotton fibers • 1 worker could now clean 1,000 pounds of cotton a day

Patent • A license from the government giving an inventor the sole right to make, use, and sell an invention for a certain period of time

Market Revolution • A change in the way American made, bought, and sold goods • More Americans were buying and selling goods, and borrowing and circulating money

Manufacturing • The use of machinery to make products • Began in New England with use of water power

Centralized • A central factory where all the tasks involved in making a product were carried out • Using this method, a New England textile mill produced 4 million yards of cloth in 1817 and increased to 323 million yards in 1840

What are the advantages of a centralized production process? • Dramatically increased production • Brought great prosperity to the economy in the North

Free Enterprise System • An economic system in which private companies compete for profits • Also known as capitalism • Rewards people who can find better, faster, and more efficient ways of running their business • Encourages innovation and creating new industries, job and wealth

Specialization • A system in which a worker performs just one part of an entire production process • Helped to maximize production

Investment Capital • Money that business spends in hopes of future gain • New equipment, new buildings, new workers, etc…

The effects of manufacturing and investment capital on the U.S. economy. • Made more goods available for purchase so money became more widely used • Producers of goods were not the people that sold them • Items people used to make themselves were now available for purchase

Bank Note • A piece of paper that banks issued to their customers • People used bank notes to pay for goods and services • Could be exchanged for specie (gold or silver)

Business owners were making enough money to improve and expand their businesses • Economy expanded • New wealth created

How did banks help create economic growth? • Provided money entrepreneurs needed to build new factories or expand existing facilities • Loaned out money that depositors had placed in banks • These loans would be paid back with interest

Innovations in transportation, and two in communication. • Transportation • Steam power • New canals • New and better roads • railroads • Communication • Newspapers • Magazines • More post offices

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THE BEST INVENTIONS OF 2021

100 innovations changing how we live

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Mobility for the Littlest Kids

The Hands-Free Shoe

The Space-Saving Wheelchair

VR Gets Real

A Fix for Film Dubbing

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Automated Inspections

Sonograms Made Simpler

Relief for Straphangers

Private, Ad-Free Search

The 911 Alternative

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Five Screens At a Time

Look Where You're Going

Powering the Metaverse

Dual-Purpose Skin Care

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Just Add Water

Multilingual Meetings Made Easy

Bone-Conduction Communication

Messaging That Makes Sense

Low-Tech Meets High-Tech

The Return of the Flip

A Notebook You Can Repair

A Speaker That Reads the Room

Frames for Digital Art

Custom Listening

The On-the-Go Workstation

The Ultimate Selfie Stick

Attachable Audio

Comfy Kicks for Health Care Workers

Back-to-Back Screens

A More Accurate World Map

Online Learning, Offline

Teaching Kids to Code

The AI Tutor

Award-Winning Television

Digital Drums, Authentic Sound

TV Gone Social

Digital Gets Physical

Fast and Futuristic

Ultra-Targeted Complexion Aide

Mind-Controlled Computing

Increasing Property Value

Recovering Savings

High-Tech Training

The Head Protector

The Full-Body Treadmill

A Novel Noodle

Non­soggy Takeout

Catch of Tomorrow

Test Thyself

A Fine-Looking Filter

Access to Care at Home

The Smart Radon Detector

Bottled Hope

Early Detection for Cognitive Decline

A Public-Health Breakthrough

A Better Bassinet

The Unbreakable Bottle

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Freedom From Distraction

Reimagining Virtual Meetings

From Horsepower to House Power

Keeping First Responders Cool

A Compassionate Companion

Printer to Pad

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A Stepping Stone to Stability

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A Reimagined Classic

The Lead-Pipe Finder

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Blue Jeans Go Green

The Reusable Shipping Box

A Portable Power Plant

The Carbon Cutter

Keeping Kids Calm

A Helping Hand for STEM

From Bottles to Blocks

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Audience editors: Samantha Cooney, Annabel Gutterman, Soo Jin Kim, Kat Moon, and Kimberly Tal

Copy editors: Helen Eisenbach, Mark Hokoda, Anny Kim, Silvija Ozols, Sarah Rutledge, and Jennifer Schiavone

Designer: Jennifer Prandato

Digital producers: Paulina Cachero and Nadia Suleman

Editors: Jennifer Duggan, Merrill Fabry, Alex Fitzpatrick, Larry Kanter, Dan Macsai, Cate Matthews, Brittany Robins, Lily Rothman, Elijah Wolfson, and Karl Vick

Photo editors: Kim Bubello and Alis Atwell

Production manager : Jennifer Panzer

Reporter-researchers:   Eloise Barry, Leslie Dickstein, Mariah Espada, Alejandro de la Garza, Nik Popli, Simmone Shah, and Julia Zorthian

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30 Famous Inventors Everyone Should Know

From the printing press to the internet!

Ask kids to name famous inventors, and you might get Thomas Edison or Henry Ford as a response. And while they definitely belong on this list, they’re just the start of the innovators and inventors that kids ought to know. Some of these are household names, while others deserve more recognition for inventions that have become essential to daily life.

For each one, you’ll find resources for more information and hands-on activities to help kids learn more about their achievements. Perhaps they’ll be inspired to become famous inventors themselves!

1. Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–1468)

Known for: Gutenberg was the first European to invent the printing press. The movable type he used made mass printing possible and brought books and reading to the masses.

Learn more: Biography of Johannes Gutenberg, German Inventor of the Printing Press (ThoughtCo)

Try this: Visit thrift shops to find an old panini press, then turn it into a printing press .

2. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

Known for: Da Vinci was the original Renaissance Man. He was a gifted artist, but he also invented a wide array of technologies. These include the aerial screw, which led to modern helicopters, and an underwater diving suit that was the precursor to today’s scuba gear.

Learn more: Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions

Try this: Da Vinci was fascinated by flying machines. Find out how to build your own Da Vinci–style ornithopter with household items .

3. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

Known for: This Founding Father was an innovator in more ways than one, and he was among history’s most famous inventors. His inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove.

Learn more: Benjamin Franklin’s Inventions

Try this: Franklin is famous for experimenting with electricity. Try one of these kid-safe electricity experiments to follow in his footsteps.

4. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

Known for: When he wasn’t writing the Declaration of Independence or being president, Jefferson loved to tinker. His swivel chair was an instant hit, and he also created the dumbwaiter system.

Learn more: Thomas Jefferson: Inventions & Accomplishments

Try this: Assemble a homemade pulley system to mimic Jefferson’s dumbwaiter.

5. Robert Fulton (1765–1815)

Known for: Fulton got his start as an artist, but it was his interest in steam engines that turned him into one of the most famous inventors. He used and improved on the technology of the time to make the first commercial steamboats.

Learn more: Robert Fulton (Ducksters)

Try this: For a cool science fair project, learn to make a model of a steam-power generator .

6. Louis Daguerre (1787–1851)

Known for: In his work as a professional scene painter for the opera, Daguerre began experimenting with camera obscura for painting large backdrops. Over time, he worked to develop the daguerreotype, the precursor of modern photography.

Learn more: Louis Daguerre, Inventor of Daguerreotype Photography (ThoughtCo)

Try this: Make your own camera obscura with a box and basic household supplies.

7. Thomas Jennings (1791–1856)

Known for: At a time when most Black men in the United States were slaves, Jennings was born free in New York City. He was the first African American to hold a patent for a process known as “dry scouring.” Today, we call it dry cleaning.

Learn more: Thomas Jennings, Smithsonian Magazine

Try this: With a few basic supplies, you can experiment with dry cleaning at home .

8. Samuel Morse (1792–1872)

Known for: Yet another artist-turned-inventor, Morse is best known for developing the electric telegraph, which allowed people to communicate over long distances nearly instantly. He also developed Morse code: a system of dots and dashes used to send these messages.

Learn more: Samuel F.B. Morse (Brittanica)

Try this: Learn Morse code and tap out messages to friends and family.

9. Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931)

Known for: Edison is one of the most famous inventors of all time. He was prolific, but his best-known inventions include the incandescent light bulb, phonograph, and an early movie camera.

Learn more: Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Try this: Learn how to make your own incandescent light bulb using a glass jar and a battery.

10. Nikola Tesla (1856–1943)

Known for: Edison and Tesla’s rivalry is well known. Tesla was the inventor and proponent of alternating current, which was ultimately proven more reliable than Edison’s direct current. He also created the Tesla Coil, induction motor, and neon lights, among other inventions.

Learn more: Tesla Science Center

Try this: Wow your science fair judges by building a Tesla coil of your own.

11. Auguste (1862–1954) and Louis Lumière (1864–1948)

Known for: The Lumière brothers gave us one of the most popular inventions of all time: the movies! Their Cinématographe was a three-in-one machine that could record, develop, and project films for an audience.

Learn more: The Lumière Brothers, Pioneers of Cinema

Try this: Screen movies using a homemade projector built with a cardboard box and a magnifying glass .

12. Henry Ford (1863–1947)

Known for: Ford not only invented the automobile, he also brainstormed the assembly line. This allowed mass production of his incredibly popular Model T and other cars.

Learn more: Henry Ford, History.com

Try this: Put your students to work with these fun assembly line classroom activities .

13. George Washington Carver (1864–1943)

Known for: Though he’s often said to have invented peanut butter, Carver’s many achievements didn’t actually include that popular product. Instead, he gave the world the concept of crop rotation. His methods were so successful they led to an abundance of peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, and he spent much of his life coming up with new uses for them.

Learn more: The Legacy of Dr. George Washington Carver

Try this: Sprout sweet potatoes in water to learn how plants grow.

14. Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919)

Known for: When a medical condition caused her to lose much of her hair, Madam Walker invented a treatment system that completely revolutionized Black hair care. She went on to become the first Black female millionaire in the United States.

Learn more: Madam C.J. Walker Official Website

Try this: Make your own shampoo and test its performance.

15. Wilbur (1867–1912) and Orville Wright (1871–1947)

Known for: When the Wright Flyer took off from Kitty Hawk and flew for 12 seconds, the Wright brothers made history! Their flight marked the first engine-powered manned aircraft.

Learn more: Taking Flight With the Wright Brothers

Try this: Experiment by building paper airplanes to see which design performs best in flight. Here are a few basic designs to get you started.

16. Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937)

Known for: Marconi changed the way humans communicated by developing the first effective system of radio communication. He sent the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901.

Learn more: Guglielmo Marconi (Brittanica)

Try this: Looking for a cool science fair idea? Make your own crystal radio.

17. Alexander Graham Bell (1877–1922)

Known for: One of the most famous inventors around, Bell gave the world the telephone. Many of his other inventions were focused on helping the deaf, sparked by his desire to help his wife Mabel, who lost her hearing at the age of five.

Learn more: Alexander Graham Bell (Britannica)

Try this: Experiment with the classic tin can telephone to learn more about how sound travels.

18. Charles R. Drew (1904–1950)

Known for: Bloodmobiles are a common sight these days, thanks to Dr. Drew. He invented a way to process and store blood plasma, eventually managing two of the largest blood banks during World War II.

Learn more: The Charles R. Drew Papers

Try this: Put together a blood model using beads or candies to learn about all the components blood contains.

19. Grace Hopper (1906–1992)

Known for: When Hopper first started working with computers, they took up entire rooms. But she believed that one day they’d become more widely used and became one of the earliest computer programmers. She invented the first compiler, a program that translates programming code to machine language.

Learn more: Grace Murray Hopper—A Legacy of Innovation and Service

Try this: Check out the Hour of Code program to learn how kids of all ages can learn computer coding in fun and easy ways.

20. Philo Farnsworth (1906–1971)

Known for: If you love a good Netflix binge, thank Philo Farnsworth. His all-electronic television system made TV one of the world’s favorite pastimes.

Learn more: The Farmboy Who Invented Television (Smithsonian Magazine)

Try this: Find an old CRT TV or monitor and learn how cathode ray tubes work using a strong magnet.

21. Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922–1999)

Known for: Do you have a home security system? Well, you can thank Marie Van Brittan Brown for it. She filed her patent in 1966, and it includes innovations still used today. She’s also known for the invention of closed-circuit TV.

Learn more: Marie Van Brittan Brown, Black Past

Try this: Protect your stuff by learning how to build your own door alarm .

22. Ralph H. Baer (1922–2014)

Known for: While kids may not know Baer’s name, they’re sure to love his accomplishments. He’s known as the “Father of the Video Game” and helped develop some of the earliest gaming consoles.

Learn more: Ralph H. Baer, National Center for Simulation

Try this: Use an app like Roblox to design and create your own video game experience.

23. Patricia Bath (1942–2019)

Known for: Kids may not give a lot of thought to cataracts, but they should still know about Dr. Bath. She was the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent. She invented the Laserphaco Pro probe, which revolutionized cataract surgery.

Learn more: Patricia Bath, Biography

Try this: Understand more about the anatomy of the eye by building a 3D human eye model .

24. Lonnie Johnson (born 1949)

Known for: Any kid who’s ever played with a Super Soaker or Nerf Blaster has Dr. Johnson to thank! He spent much of his career working for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and his innovations in aerospace technology are legendary.

Learn more: Lonnie Johnson Website

Try this: Put together a basic rubber band shooter , then see if you can tinker around to improve the design’s distance or accuracy.

25. Steve Wozniak (born 1950) and Steve Jobs (1955–2011)

Known for: “Woz and Jobs” are two of the most famous inventors of the 20th century. Though Jobs went on to become more well known, he and Wozniak worked together to build the Apple I, the home computer that launched a revolution.

Learn more: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Lemelson-MIT

Try it: If you can get your hands on an old computer that’s no longer needed, deconstruct it with your class to learn about the pieces and parts inside .

26. Ann Tsukamoto (born 1952)

Known for: Dr. Tsukamoto is on the cutting edge of one of the most exciting new technologies: stem cells. She holds several patents for the technology to isolate various types of stem cells.

Learn more: Ann Tsukamoto, Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

Try this: Watch this video to learn more about stem cells and their importance in modern medicine.

27. Peter Tsai (born 1952)

Known for: Over the last couple of years or so, Tsai’s invention has suddenly become world-famous. He created the N95 respirator mask, which helps keep people safe against airborne viruses.

Learn more: Our Dad Invented the N95 Mask

Try this: Follow Bill Nye’s lead and try this candle-extinguishing experiment to learn how effective face masks are.

28. Tim Berners-Lee (born 1952)

Known for: If you’re reading this right now, thank Tim Berners-Lee. In 1991, he launched the World Wide Web, and the internet as we know it was born, making him one of the great famous inventors.

Learn more: Tim Berners-Lee (Wired)

Try this: Explore the history of the internet and find out what early web pages looked like. Kids will be astonished!

29. Thomas David Petite (born 1956)

Known for: Petite has made major contributions to wireless technologies, including the components of the Smart Grid. He founded the Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council to help fellow Native American inventors.

Learn more: Thomas David Petite, Readworks

Try this: Check out this video to learn more about the Smart Grid and how it’s used.

30. Ajay Bhatt (born 1957)

Known for: Every time you plug your phone in to charge or attach a component to your laptop, you can thank Ajay Bhatt for inventing USB technology.

Learn more: Ajay Bhatt—The Inventor of the USB

Try this: Look around your classroom or home and find all the devices that use USB ports and technology .

Looking for more famous inventors to share with kids? Explore these 16 wonderful women scientists to inspire your students .

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Telling a good innovation story

Among corporate innovators, the travails of James Dyson and the unlikely insight of Art Fry are iconic. Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner was perfected only after a staggering 5,127 tries. Fry’s inspiration, interestingly enough, came during a church service. Pieces of paper he had used to mark hymns kept falling out of his choir book, which led the 3M scientist to think about the materials chemistry that eventually produced Post-it Notes. World-changing products, yes, but also great stories.

Companies today are fixated on innovation, to say the least. Many have reorganized so that ideas can move forward faster and with less internal friction. A recent McKinsey Quarterly article describes how companies are experimenting with virtual-reality hackathons and “innovation garages” to step up their product-development hit rate. We know that much of corporate innovation travels along well-orchestrated pathways—a neat tech breakthrough, a product owner, and an orderly progression through stage-gate and successful launch.

Occasionally, though, it’s a “crazy” idea that bubbles up through a lone entrepreneur battling the system, overcoming false starts, and surviving against the odds. While such instances are by their very nature idiosyncratic, one thing many have in common is that good storytelling helps them break through. Storytelling has always been important in business , of course, but in today’s environment, with executive and investor attention stretched thin by information overload, the softer stuff is ever more important for getting ideas noticed.

Over the past three years, my colleagues and I have been researching how people frame their innovation stories to create differentiation and attract attention. Our project started with the creation of an innovation award—officially, “The Real Innovation Awards”—at the London Business School in 2016. The award had a number of provocative and unusual categories (see exhibits), nominations for which were determined by a mix of expert judges and crowdsourced voting. Over the three years, we have had more than 1,000 nominations 1 1. There is an increasing amount of interest in using these types of “crowd”-based judgments in social research. For example, see Tara S. Behrend et al., “The viability of crowdsourcing for survey research,” Behavior Research Methods, September 2011, Volume 43, Number 3, pp. 800–13; and Geoffrey Rockwell, “Crowdsourcing the humanities: Social research and collaboration,” in Willard McCarty and Marilyn Deegan, eds., Collaborative Research in the Digital Humanities, New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, pp. 135–55. from companies or individuals, of which 54 were shortlisted and 26 awarded prizes. Based on our analysis of the stories of all nominees so far, here are three lessons for senior managers as well as entrepreneurs, in organizations large and small, on what makes a compelling and emotional story.

The disconnect between academic labels and good storytelling

“Fast follower” and “self-cannibalization” are terms long-used by academics like me to describe, clinically, what some companies are doing to innovate and reinvent their business models. We had two categories that spoke to these terms, and 20 percent of the nominations fell into either one or the other. Significantly, though, many nominees either refused to accept their nomination in that category or expressed discomfort with the terms. As a result, we recharacterized them as “best beats first” and “master of reinvention.”

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A “best beats first” innovator takes the measure of a competitor who may be dominating a market with an acceptable product, and then leaps to the front with something even better. It’s about winning through cunning, instead of using the conventional playbook of scaling a similar product with heavy investment to maintain share. Many innovators told us that the “fast follower” meme is bereft of emotion: no one ever wins people over by talking about their capacity for imitation. “Best beats first” celebrates doing things in a new way and vanquishes the competitors by seizing an opportunity they missed. A great example among our award winners is Vivino, which created a leading wine-rating and -recommendation app, based on the use of mobile devices to take a photo of the bottle label.

If employing this story, make sure to emphasize the points of difference, and downplay the similarities, with the incumbent’s offerings. It isn’t so important how you got there, but it is important to show what makes you distinctive.

The “master of reinvention” story line has a twist. Instead of the innovator taking on the establishment, this one is about the establishment challenging itself . It’s the classic tale of transformation or rebirth, where the archetypical protagonist gets into trouble, goes through a near-death experience, and does some soul searching to reinvent himself as a better person. It’s a common occurrence in business—take Ørsted, the erstwhile Danish fossil-fuel producer that now gets about 40 percent of its revenues from wind energy—but rarely is it captured with sufficient emotion. Companies often disrupt themselves by cannibalizing their legacy products before their upstart competitors do so. However, nominees told us that this understates the essence of what they had achieved, and they didn’t want to position themselves as aggressively killing off declining product lines (despite that fact that it’s often a valid strategy for coping with disruption).

Master reinventors bear in mind that people want to hear about the emergence of the butterfly rather than the demise of the caterpillar. Acknowledge your declining products and the external changes causing you to reevaluate, by all means, but don’t linger on the internal struggles you have gone through to kill them. Instead, focus on the forward-looking reinvention story with its new array of potential successes. Investors will relate to this: it suggests you’re in touch with both the company’s past and its future.

The enduring power of serendipity, perspiration, and underdogs

Approximately 30 percent of the nominations fell into these “classic” innovators categories, which still enjoy broad resonance.

Serendipity involves stumbling over something unusual, and then having the foresight or perspective to capitalize on it. What makes that such an attractive story? It’s the juxtaposition of seemingly independent things. In a serendipitous flash, one recent winner, an engineering firm, realized that the gear it designed for scallop trawlers could also be used to recover hard-to-get-at material in nuclear-waste pools. Surprising connections such as these set off a chain of events that culminate in a commercial opportunity. So to build this story line, think about the quirky combination of ideas that got you started and remember that serendipity is not the same as chance—you were wise enough, when something surprising happened, to see its potential.

The perspiration story theme (or “If at first you don’t succeed . . .”) is all about hard work and tenacity. Things don’t go according to plan, but you conscientiously refine and adapt your idea, and eventually, like Thomas Edison, you wind up with a working lightbulb after a thousand failed attempts. How could this not be compelling to investors, customers, or an R&D committee? Just remember that to close the story loop, perseverance needs to show progress. Better not to dwell on mistakes and go around in circles. Emphasize how “learning” and “experimentation” and “pivoting” made the perseverance pay off.

In the underdog , or “the unreasonable person,” category, the innovator is fighting the system—the executives and internal procedures that block progress. Unyielding creators such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are the role models. They pit themselves against mere incrementalism and me-too products, while rejecting the usual idea-development pathways and timetables. Underdog innovators take on the mantle of the fighter who thrives in battle and relishes proving someone wrong. “Unreasonableness” means not pivoting to get to victory but sticking doggedly to your vision. So you’ll need to convince the world how your idea challenges orthodoxy, takes on vested interests, and—after many struggles—has been proved right.

The persuasive power of riding trends

Valuable as all the storytelling approaches above can be, it’s worth emphasizing that nearly half (45 percent) of all the nominations were for “the winds of change” award—essentially about harnessing external forces. This notion of riding trends is incredibly powerful, so much so that an award category we created for its polar opposite (“before its time”) received so few (weak) nominations that we discontinued it in the second year.

The story line of external forces propelling things forward at a unique point in history typically credits the idea originator for being in the right place at the right time, while deftly navigating the economic or political currents that have combined to make success almost inevitable. YouTube, in the classic example, rode the winds by capitalizing on the emergence of simple video-editing technology and the massive rollout of broadband internet access.

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In this story framing, don’t tell colleagues and investors you were simply lucky, but instead position yourself as the expert surfer who caught the wave at exactly the right moment: “We were smart enough to see how these trends were coming together, and this is what drove our success.” Beware, however, that the story arc of protagonists getting swept up doesn’t always point forward. Winds unpredictably change direction, and ideas crash to the shore. So let everyone know you’re aware of how creative destruction can be cruel and that today’s disruptive innovation can be tomorrow’s outdated technology.

There may be other story lines we haven’t thought of, but we’re confident the ones highlighted in this article will attract attention because they are enduring and tap a range of emotions. The ability to frame ideas in an attractive way is important for reaching customers and employees, too, but it’s particularly so in the world of innovation because of the enormous levels of uncertainty involved in creating something new.

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Julian Birkinshaw is a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School.

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INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS

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INVENTION OF THE LIGHT BULB

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The 13 most remarkable inventions from Ancient China

The history of human civilization is marked by the brilliance and ingenuity of our ancestors, and nowhere is this more evident than in the remarkable inventions of Ancient China.

A cradle of civilization, Ancient China was a hub of innovation and technological advancement, producing inventions that not only revolutionized the ancient world but continue to impact our lives today.

How ancient is China?

Ancient China, a civilization that spans thousands of years, was marked by a series of dynasties, each contributing to the rich tapestry of innovation and progress.

The Xia Dynasty (2070–1600 BC), often considered the first dynasty in traditional Chinese history, laid the foundation for the development of Chinese culture.

However, it was during the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC) that significant advancements in bronze casting, warfare, and writing systems began to emerge.

The Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC), which followed, saw the introduction of iron tools and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which deeply influenced Chinese philosophy and governance.

The Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC), albeit short-lived, was a period of immense significance. It was during this era that China was unified under a single emperor for the first time, and the construction of the Great Wall began.

The subsequent Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) is often regarded as a golden age of Chinese civilization, witnessing advancements in papermaking, seismology, and the codification of the medical practice.

The Tang (618–907 AD) and Song (960–1279 AD) Dynasties were periods of exceptional cultural and technological progress.

The Tang Dynasty is renowned for its poetry and the invention of woodblock printing, while the Song Dynasty is celebrated for the development of movable type printing, gunpowder, and the compass.

Papermaking was invented during the Han Dynasty around 105 AD by a court official named Cai Lun.

Prior to this, bamboo and silk were the primary materials used for writing, but they were expensive and not easily accessible.

The invention of paper made from mulberry bark, rags, and other materials revolutionized communication and record-keeping.

It made writing materials more affordable and accessible, leading to an increase in literacy and the spread of knowledge.

2. Printing

Printing was another monumental invention from Ancient China. The earliest form of printing, woodblock printing, was developed during the Tang Dynasty.

This involved carving an entire page of text onto a wooden block, inking it, and then pressing it onto paper.

Later, during the Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, which involved individual characters carved onto small blocks that could be rearranged for different pages of text.

These printing techniques allowed for the mass production of texts, contributing significantly to the dissemination of knowledge and culture.

3. Magnetic compass

The compass, invented during the Han Dynasty, was initially used for divination and geomancy, but it soon found its way into navigation.

The compass was a critical tool that allowed mariners to navigate the seas with greater accuracy, opening up new trade routes and facilitating exploration.

This invention had a profound impact on world history, enabling global exploration and trade.

4. Gunpowder

Gunpowder, invented during the Tang Dynasty, was initially used for medicinal purposes.

However, its explosive properties were soon harnessed for military use. The invention of gunpowder revolutionized warfare, leading to the development of new weapons and tactics.

It also had peaceful applications, such as in mining and construction, and in the creation of spectacular fireworks, a practice that continues to this day.

5. Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China , one of the most iconic symbols of China, is an engineering marvel that stretches over 13,000 miles.

Its construction began as early as the 7th century BC, with walls built by various states to protect their territories.

However, it was during the Qin Dynasty that Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the walls to be connected into a single system to defend against northern invasions.

Over the centuries, the wall was continuously built, rebuilt, and maintained.

Despite the harsh conditions and challenging terrain, the wall stands as a testament to the determination and engineering prowess of the Chinese people.

6. The Great Canal

The Grand Canal, another remarkable feat of engineering, is the world's longest artificial waterway, stretching over 1,100 miles.

Constructed in sections from the 5th century BC onwards, it was fully connected during the Sui Dynasty in the 7th century AD.

The canal was a major artery for transportation and communication, linking the economically prosperous south with the political capital in the north.

Its construction involved overcoming numerous engineering challenges, including varying water levels and difficult terrain, and it stands as a testament to the advanced hydraulic engineering of Ancient China.

7. Segmental Arch Bridge

The Segmental Arch Bridge, while less known, is another significant engineering achievement.

The Zhaozhou Bridge, built during the Sui Dynasty, is the oldest surviving example of this type of bridge.

With a span of over 120 feet, it was the world's largest arch bridge at the time. The segmental arch design, which uses a less than semicircular arch, is more material-efficient and structurally sound than a full semicircular arch, allowing for larger spans and better resistance to damage.

This design was far ahead of its time and influenced bridge construction worldwide.

8. Acupuncture

Acupuncture, one of the most well-known medical practices to originate from China, dates back to at least the 2nd century BC.

This therapeutic technique involves inserting thin needles into specific points on the body to balance the flow of 'Qi' or life energy.

Ancient Chinese physicians believed that illness was caused by an imbalance of this energy, and acupuncture was used to restore balance and promote healing.

Despite its ancient origins, acupuncture is still widely practiced today, recognized for its effectiveness in pain management and treatment of various conditions.

9. Herbal Medicine

Herbal Medicine is another significant contribution of Ancient China to the field of health and wellness.

The Chinese Materia Medica, a pharmacological reference book, contains records of thousands of medicinal plants and their uses.

The practice of herbal medicine in Ancient China was not just about treating illness but also about maintaining health and preventing disease.

This holistic approach to health, which considers the body, mind, and environment, has influenced modern integrative and preventive medicine.

10. The South-Pointing Chariot

The South Pointing Chariot, another significant invention, was an early form of navigation device that used differential gears to maintain a pointer aimed at the southern direction, regardless of the chariot's movements.

This ingenious device, which predates the magnetic compass, is a testament to the advanced mechanical engineering and understanding of directional navigation in Ancient China.

11. Porcelain

Porcelain, often referred to as 'China' in the West, is a testament to the advanced ceramic technology of Ancient China.

The Chinese began producing porcelain during the Han Dynasty, but it was during the Tang Dynasty that porcelain became a significant export item along the Silk Road.

By the time of the Song Dynasty, Chinese potters had mastered the art of creating translucent, white porcelain, often referred to as 'true porcelain.'

This porcelain, renowned for its beauty and durability, was highly sought after worldwide, influencing ceramics production globally.

Silk, another significant cultural innovation, has a history in China dating back to around 3000 BC.

The production of silk, or sericulture, was a closely guarded secret for centuries. Silk was a symbol of luxury and status, and it played a crucial role in international trade, giving name to the 'Silk Road,' the ancient network of trade routes that connected East and West.

The influence of silk extends beyond textiles, impacting art, fashion, and culture worldwide.

Tea cultivation is another major contribution of Ancient China. The practice of tea drinking began in China, and it was during the Tang Dynasty that tea culture truly flourished.

Lu Yu's 'The Classic of Tea,' the first known monograph on tea, was written during this period.

The cultivation, preparation, and ceremony of tea drinking have deeply influenced Chinese culture and society.

The spread of tea cultivation to other parts of Asia and eventually to the rest of the world has had a significant impact on global agriculture, trade, and cultural practices.

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28 Free Technology PowerPoint Templates for Presentations from the Future

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If you’re amongst the science and technology teachers, students, or businesses in the field; we have something for you. We deep-dived to find the best free technology PowerPoint templates for your presentation, so today’s collection has 28 amazing designs to choose from.

The following selection has templates related to science, technology, cybersecurity, search engines, bitcoin, networking, programming, and engineering, so there’s something for everyone.

1. Computer Hardware Free Technology PowerPoint Template

This template sports a cool design with a bright light of a microchip processor and a blue background. Ideal for explaining concepts such as semiconductors, databases, and central computer processors.

• Theme : Technology, Hardware
• Slides : 48
• Customization : Fully editable + 136 editable icons
• Graphics : Vector
• Aspect Ratio : 16:9
• License : Free for Personal and Commercial Use │ Do Not Redistribute Any Components of the Template

2. Space Science Free Technology Powerpoint Templates

This free template has 3D spaceship graphics and blue background color. It’s great for presentations on astronomy.

• Theme : Technology, Cosmos
• Slides : 25
• Customization : Fully editable
• Resolution : 1920×1080

3. 5G Technology Speed Free Powerpoint Templates

Design with twinkling rays of geometric shapes is perfect for presentations on technology topics such as internet networking, intranet, and communication technology.

• Theme : Technology, Networking, 5G
• Customization : Editable

4. Start-Up Tech Corporation Free Powerpoint Template

This free tech corporation template is great for presentations on tech business startups.

• Theme : Technology, Tech Business, Start-Up Companies

5. App Startup Free Powerpoint Technology Template

This design is great for presentations on communication, mobile technology, and other digital devices used for the PPT presentations.

• Theme : Technology, Apps, Software

6. Cloud Technology Free Powerpoint Template

A technology template with a clean and modern design for your presentations about cloud computing and other computing services.

• Theme : Cloud Technlogy

7. Artificial Intelligence High Technology Free PowerPoint Template

This template represents artificial intelligence as an illustration . It also includes related shapes to allow for a variety of expressions.

• Theme : Technology, Artificial Intelligence

8. Search Engine Optimization PowerPoint Template

The template is SEO-themed but you can adapt it to any presentation related to marketing and search engines.

• Theme : Technology, Marketing, SEO

9. Binary Code Free PowerPoint Template

The cool binary code design makes this template perfect for any presentation on computer science.

• Theme : Computer Science, Programming

10. Network Free Technology PowerPoint Template

Sporting design with crags and electric rays in many angles are representing networking around the globe, the template is suitable for presentations on communication, networking, technology, and crag wheels.

• Theme : Technology, Networking

11. Hexagonal Design Free PowerPoint Template

Here we have a free template with hexagons and icons pattern for techy content. Its dark background and bright blue color palette give a professional look.

• Theme : Technology

12. Technology Pixels Free PowerPoint Template

A technology-themed template for presentations on consulting, IT, software, and other related subjects. The pixel pattern is grouped by tones which you can change from the master slides.

13. Connections and Networking Free PowerPoint Template

This free Powerpoint template is perfect for a presentation about the internet, blockchain, machine learning, cybersecurity, or cloud computing.

14. Isometric Free Technology PowerPoint Template

Here we have an amazing isometric design and high-tech background with gradients. Ideal for subjects like cloud computing, SaaS development, servers, and networks, or cybersecurity.

• Theme : Networking, Programming

15. Free PowerPoint Template with Techy Contour Lines

This design has an abstract contour lines background in a dark green color. Ideal for subjects like geography, technology, video games, or even military affairs.

• Theme : Technology, Gaming

16. Marketing and Technology Free PowerPoint Template

The isometric design has illustrations on business, marketing, and technology topics that will make every slide stand out.

• Theme : Technology, Marketing

17. Purple Hexagons Free PowerPoint Template

For presentations related to scientific or technological topics, with professional hexagonal design.

• Theme : Technology, Science

18. Rockets Taking Off  Free PowerPoint Template

Rockets taking off is a great metaphor for growing businesses. It’s also a symbol of progress and technology.

• Slides : 35

19. IOT Smart City Free PowerPoint Template

Smart City offers a futuristic design for subjects such as internet communication, smart city concepts, and tech innovation.

• Theme : Technology, Smart City

20. Cyber Security Free PowerPoint Template

The perfect template for presentations on cybersecurity, antivirus software, and other related topics.

• Theme : Technology, Cyber Security

21. BlockChain Free PowerPoint Templates

This template is a 3D rendering design of blockchain technology and you can use it for a variety of purposes.

Presentation Design Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier:

The shorter you keep the text, the better. In fact, some specialists suggest that you shouldn’t use more than 5-6 words per slide . And sometimes, a single word combined with a powerful visual is enough to nail the attention of the people sitting in front of you and make them listen to what you have to say.

22. BitCoin Themed Free PowerPoint Template

A very versatile template that includes 20 semi-transparent illustrations of different concepts: security, social networks, programming, bitcoin.

• Theme : Technology, Bitcoin

23. Technical Blueprint Free Technology PowerPoint Template

This template uses a blueprint style and a monospaced font to emulate the technical drawings used in construction and industry.

• Theme : Technology, Engineering

24. Blue Connections Free PowerPoint Template

The design of this free template fits social media, connection, internet, cloud computing, and science-related topics.

• Theme : Technology, Social Media

25. Cute Robots Free PowerPoint Template

Here we have a colorful design with beautifully illustrated robots for presentation on technology, science, and physics.

• Theme : Technology, Physics

26. Green Circuit Free PowerPoint Template

This is a free template with futuristic vibes that you can use for your tech presentations both in PowerPoint and Google Slides.

27. Data Particles Free Technology PowerPoint Template

The design with particle lines gives it a modern and slightly technological look.

28. Science Hexagons Free Technology PowerPoint Template

The background gradients highlight the white text, and the hexagons give it a techie style.

Final Words

That’s it. Today’s collection covered the best free technology PowerPoint templates that you can download and adapt to your presentations related to science, technology, programming, engineering, and physics. Now all you need to do is open your PowerPoint and make the most amazing presentation your viewers have ever seen.

For more freebies, you can check the Best Free Powerpoint Templates of 2022  or see these related articles:

• 36 Free Food PowerPoint Templates For Delicious Presentations
• 31 Free Modern Powerpoint Templates for Your Presentation
• 25 Free Education PowerPoint Templates For Lessons, Thesis, and Online Lectures

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Lyudmil Enchev

Lyudmil is an avid movie fan which influences his passion for video editing. You will often see him making animations and video tutorials for GraphicMama. Lyudmil is also passionate for photography, video making, and writing scripts.

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What a nice surprise your new employees are going to get! Well, you're going to welcome them and prepare their onboarding with this template here, especially for tech companies! The design is sensational: a dark style combined with purple tones (which gives it that technological touch, don't you think?) and...

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Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

At michigan state university, frib project team receives secretary of energy’s achievement award.

The FRIB Project team received a U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Secretary of Energy Achievement Award—DOE’s highest form of employee recognition for achievements—at the annual Secretary’s Honor Awards ceremony held 20 February. The event included an address from U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and award presentations from Deputy Secretary David M. Turk. 

The Secretary’s Honor Awards are given every year to individuals and teams whose service has gone above and beyond expectations and for contributions having lasting impacts on both DOE and the United States. These awards are among the highest forms of internal, non-monetary recognition DOE federal and contractor employees can receive. The DOE Office of Science nominated the FRIB Project team for the award.

“I would like to recognize the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams—FRIB—for their exceptional project planning skills, discipline in project management, and resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges to successfully complete the 14-year construction of FRIB—on cost and ahead of schedule,” said Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geri Richmond. “FRIB was designed to be the most powerful heavy ion accelerator in the world for the production of short-lived nuclei. Its construction allows for 85 percent of all isotopes predicted to exist in nature to be accessed, more than 2.5 times the number of isotopes previously even known. This new Office of Science user facility has an interactive user community of over 1,800 scientists, and the successful construction of FRIB opens new research and technical horizons, significantly advancing multiple DOE missions and underpinning the future science and technology leadership, security, and competitiveness of the United States.”

FRIB, which began construction in May 2009, was completed in January 2022 and officially opened in May 2022.

“We are honored to receive this meaningful recognition, and grateful for the continued support of the U.S. government and the American taxpayers to operate FRIB in service to the nation,” said FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher. “This award truly is for the entire FRIB Project team, without whom there would be no FRIB, which we are privileged to operate as a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility, enabling scientists to make discoveries.”

FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher, former Project Manager and Deputy Laboratory Director Paul Mantica, former Scientific Director Brad Sherrill, Experimental Systems Director Georg Bollen, and Accelerator Systems Division Director Jie Wei accepted the award on behalf of the FRIB Project team.

Michigan State University operates FRIB as a user facility for the DOE Office of Science (DOE-SC), supporting the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics. Hosting what is designed to be the most powerful heavy-ion accelerator, FRIB enables scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes (that is, short-lived nuclei not normally found on Earth), nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security, and industry.

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NVIDIA GTC 2024: A Glimpse Into the Future of AI With Jensen Huang

NVIDIA’s GTC 2024 AI conference will set the stage for another leap forward in AI.

At the heart of this highly anticipated event: the opening keynote by Jensen Huang , NVIDIA’s visionary founder and CEO, who speaks on Monday, March 18, at 1 p.m. Pacific, at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif.

Planning Your GTC Experience

There are two ways to watch.

Register to attend GTC in person to secure a spot for an immersive experience at the SAP Center. The center is a short walk from the San Jose Convention Center, where the rest of the conference takes place. Doors open at 11 a.m., and badge pickup starts at 10:30 a.m.

The keynote will also be livestreamed at www.nvidia.com/gtc/keynote/ .

Whether attending in person or virtually, commit to joining us all week. GTC is more than just a conference. It’s a gateway to the next wave of AI innovations.

• Transforming AI: Hear more from Huang as he discusses the origins and impact of transformer neural network architecture with its creators and industry pioneers. He’ll host a panel with all eight authors of the legendary 2017 paper that introduced the concept of transformers: Ashish Vaswani, Noam Shazeer, Niki Parmar, Jakob Uszkoreit, Llion Jones, Aidan N. Gomez, Lukasz Kaiser, and Illia Polosukhin.Wed., March 20, 11-11:50 a.m. Pacific.
• Join Visionaries Transforming Our World: Hear from leaders such as xAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin ; Microsoft Vice President of GenAI Sebastian Bubeck , Stanford University’s Fei-Fei Li ,  Meta Vice President of AI Research Joelle Pineau ; OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad LightCap ; Adept AI founder and CEO David Luan ; Waabi f ounder and CEO Raquel Urtasun ; Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch ; and many others at the forefront of AI across various industries.
• Be Part of What Comes Next: Engage from March 17-21 in workshops and peer networking and connect with the experts. This year’s session catalog is packed with topics covering everything from robotics to generative AI, showcasing real-world applications and the latest in AI innovation.
• Stay Connected: Tune in online to engage with the event and fellow attendees using #GTC24 on social media.

With visionary speakers and a comprehensive program covering the essentials of AI and computing, GTC promises to be an enlightening experience for all.

Don’t miss your chance to be at the forefront of AI’s evolution. Register now .

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Creating an Effective Presentation for Distance Delivery

M’Randa Sandlin

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Creating presentations for distance delivery can prove to be a daunting task. While structurally similar to face-to-face presentations, distance delivery additionally requires attention to technological components that many may not comfortable with. This video provides an overview of presentation creation with specific considerations for formatting visual components, audio/visual tips, and tools that may prove useful as you consider creating your own presentation for distance delivery. 

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Video: creating an effective presentation for distance delivery .

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Climate, Housing, and Transporation in California Presentation

Published On March 25, 2024

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MAE student Olivia Fulkerson won 3rd place for poster presentation at Research Day at the Capitol

Monday, March 25, 2024

Olivia Fulkerson, a junior in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was recently selected as one of only four students to represent Oklahoma State University at the Research Day at the Capitol. Her research, titled Accelerating Design and Additive Manufacturing of Polymer Composites for Aerospace Applications , focuses on developing data-driven strategies to expedite the design of additive manufactured components across the automotive, aerospace, and medical sectors. She participated in the Research-intensive Institutions category, where she won third place for her poster presentation.

Fulkerson is part of a research team that works in the Advanced Materials and Additive Manufacturing (AM 2 ) Laboratory that engages in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of materials science, physical phenomena, and advanced manufacturing. Their goal is to investigate and comprehend the essential triad of process, phenomenon, and property within the context of additive manufacturing. Toward this objective, they develop experimental tools, characterization methods, functional materials, and process models aimed at advancing the science and technology of manufacturing fully functional products.

Fulkerson’s research is a collaborative effort involving three research faculty members: Drs. Srikanthan Ramesh and Akash Deep, assistant professors in industrial engineering and management, and Dr. Hadi Noori, assistant professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering. 

Research Day at the Capitol was established 29 years ago to showcase the outstanding undergraduate research being conducted at Oklahoma’s colleges and universities in the areas of science (including social science), technology, engineering, and mathematics. The prestigious event is sponsored by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Oklahoma Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (OK EPSCoR), and the National Science Foundation.

The 2024 Research Day at the Capitol event encompassed multiple activities. On March 18, 2024, students’ posters and oral presentations were individually judged.  On March 19, 2024, students met with legislators at the State Capitol Building and shared their research during a poster exhibit and poster competition winners were announced during an awards ceremony.

PowerPoint parties are still bringing friends together, one hyper-specific subject at a time

For McCall Mirabella’s 21st birthday party last month, she asked guests to bring only one gift: A PowerPoint presentation.

Mirabella, a TikTok and YouTube personality with over 1.3 million followers across both platforms, assembled her closest friends and asked them to present a slideshow on anything they could think of. The only criteria was “the sillier, the better.”

Her guests delivered. One attendee ranked the attractiveness of 10 animated characters while another humorously explored the disparate stages of being high. Mirabella herself presented her predictions for how long her friends would survive in the Hunger Games (and how they’d meet their violent ends , seemingly a popular template for a PowerPoint party).

Such are the delights of PowerPoint presentation nights, which boomed in popularity during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic but are still charming partygoers (this, in spite of its regular use in corporate offices the world over). Through a silly slideshow, groups of friends get to know each other’s niche interests, secret pastimes and frequently hilarious takes on their friends’ quirks and strengths.

Seeing the people she loves get worked up over assigning each other Taylor Swift songs that match their personalities or fictional crimes that would land them in prison is a joy specific to slideshow-centric parties, Mirabella said.

“They’re so unserious,” she said of PowerPoint nights she’s attended and hosted. “Most of the time, people are left crying from laughing so hard, or bent over wheezing.”

PowerPoint parties got popular during the pandemic, but they’ve delighted friends for years

PowerPoint nights involve little more than an HDMI-compatible TV, a slideshow and a willingness to razz your friends or reveal your hidden passions. The software itself is nearly 40 years old , and it’s since become a staple in many offices and classrooms, but the ingenious PowerPoint party turns the familiar tech into a medium for comedy and comradery.

The concept of the PowerPoint party was formalized in 2012, when three students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, hosted a “Drink, Talk & Learn” event. Guests of these early parties had to show up with a presentation on the arcane subject of their choice, like the moral alignment of Sonic the Hedgehog character Shadow, per Buzzfeed News .

The theme steadily grew more popular and by 2018, more PowerPoint enthusiasts in the US had caught on. Soon, everyone from software engineers in Seattle to students in Boston were presenting slides on hyper-specific subjects to a small crowd, often with a drink in hand.

In the Harvard Crimson’s account of one local PowerPoint party, a student presented his argument for why King Claudius is the true hero of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” a divisive take if there ever was one. The presenter told the school paper that his zeal for the topic had been relegated to “a rant to my friends up until now. Finally, I can present it to strangers.”

When Covid-19 arrived in 2020 and millions of Americans isolated in their homes, virtual PowerPoint parties became a safe, distanced way for friends to update each other on their lives and provide much-needed levity. Groups separated by the pandemic shared their screens on Zoom or even rallied their housemates to turn an ordinary night in isolation into an opportunity for a private TedTalk.

Tantalizing snippets from these presentations landed on TikTok (users rarely spill the juicy contents of the slideshows beyond their uproarious titles),  inspiring other users to host their own get-togethers. The subjects are typically zany, lighthearted takes on the idiosyncrasies of a group of friends — like how they’d each fare during a zombie apocalypse — and minor passions or dubious theories like the “real” (read: fictional) reason the dinosaurs died .

Since the party format took off in 2020 (and has since amassed over 40 million views on TikTok under related hashtags ), TikTok users have tested crafty new variations of the typical slideshow gathering and polled users on different platforms, like Reddit , for unique suggestions for presentations. Take the host who ambushed their guests by forcing them to present someone else’s PowerPoint on a subject they knew nothing about, like the hapless friend who bluffed their way through a presentation on how to pick stocks. A group in Philadelphia creates slideshows for their single friends to catch fellow singles’ attention. One creative TikTok-er even came out to their family in a PowerPoint on Christmas.

Though Microsoft PowerPoint software isn’t a requirement for these presentations — competing services like Prezi, Canva and Google Slides are also popular — Microsoft issued its own advice for hosting a premier PowerPoint party. Among its suggestions: Take advantage of those wacky transitions so photos can boomerang across the screen and titles can disappear with a click.

Since her cousins introduced her to PowerPoint parties during a sleepover eight months ago, Mirabella’s presentations have only improved in quality and theatricality. Her recent Hunger Games-themed slideshow included multimedia elements like Taylor Swift entering the fictional arena for a brief halftime performance to break up the bloodshed. Her friends voted it the best presentation of the night.

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Register for April 17 Canvas Ally Presentation on Enhancing Inclusivity

Boise State faculty and staff are invited to join the Learning Technology Solutions team to explore accessibility in the University Learning Management System with Canvas Ally. This 45-minute Zoom session will elevate your understanding of accessibility by using Canvas Ally to create an inclusive and empowering learning environment.

The presentation provides an insightful discussion on the importance of accessibility in education, including how to create an inclusive learning environment, meet diverse student needs, and foster equal educational opportunities for all.

A step-by-step walkthrough on reviewing the Canvas Ally report and how its valuable feedback allows you to identify and address accessibility issues within your course materials efficiently will be provided.

Patrick Lowenthal, a faculty member in the Department of Educational Technology, will also share his experience using Ally to improve accessibility in Canvas courses.

The presentation will conclude with a dedicated time for questions and discussions, allowing you to interact with our experts and fellow faculty members.

Session Details

The session will be held on Wednesday, April 17 from 1:00 pm to 1:45 pm via Zoom.

Click here to join the Zoom Session or add the link to your calendar .

How to add the event to your calendar

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• Scroll to the calendar on the webpage, click on the event to open its details, and select Copy to my Calendars.
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• Confirm your choice and save the copied event. The event will now appear in your personal Google Calendar.
• Go to your personal Google Calendar to ensure the event appears.

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