Invention or Articles on Explain

Date
discovery that stuff

Prehistory

4–5 billion Sun starts to produce Solar cells

years ago energy. Energy

~3.5 million Humans make the Tools and machines

years ago first tools from stone,
wood, antlers, and
bones.

1–2 million Humans discover Biofuels

years ago fire. Candles
Car engines
Jet engines

10,000 BCE Earliest boats are Ships and boats

constructed.

8000– 9000 Beginnings of human Biofuels

BCE settlements and Water
agriculture.

6000– 7000 Hand-made bricks Brick (ceramics)

BCE first used for
construction in the
 Middle East.

Ancient
times

4000 BCE Iron used for the first Iron and steel
time in decorative
ornaments.

3500– 5000 Glass is made by Glass

BCE people for the first
time.

3500 BCE Humans invent the Tools and machines

wheel. Wheels and axles

3000 BCE First written Communications

languages are Typewriters
developed by the
Sumerian people of
southern
Mesopotamia (part
of modern Iraq).

~2500 BCE Ancient Egyptians Paper

produce papyrus, a Communications
crude early version
of paper.

3000– Bronze Age: Copper

600BCE Widespread use of Alloys
copper and its Metals
important alloy
bronze.

2000 BCE Water-raising and Cranes

irrigation devices Elevators
like the shaduf Tools and machines
(shadoof), invented
by the Ancient
Egyptians, introduce
the idea of lifting
things using
counterweights.

c1700 BCE Semites of the Communications

Mediterranean
develop the alphabet.

1000 BCE Iron Age begins: iron Iron and steel

is widely used for
making tools and
weapons in many
parts of the world.

600 BCE Thales of Miletus Electricity

discovers static Static electricity
electricity. History of electricity

500BCE– Nazca people of Peru Hot-air balloons

900CE are believed to have
 experimented with
balloon flight.

400BCE– Chinese experiment Airplanes

300BCE with flying kites. History of flight

~250 BCE Ancient Egyptians Fresnel lenses

invent lighthouses,
including the huge
Lighthouse of
Alexandria.

~300– 200 Chinese invent early Compasses

BCE magnetic direction
finders.

~250 BCE Archimedes invents Tools and machines

the screw pump for
moving water and
other materials.

c.150– 100 Gear-driven, Clockwork

BCE precision clockwork
machines (such as
the Antikythera
mechanism) are in
existence.

c.50 BCE Roman engineer Turbines

Vitruvius perfects
the modern, vertical
 water wheel.

62 CE Hero of Alexandria, Steam engines

a Greek scientist, Steam turbines
pioneers steam
power.

105 CE Ts'ai Lun makes the Paper

first paper in China.

27 BCE–395 Romans develop the Steel and concrete

CE first, basic concrete
called pozzolana.

Middle Ages

~600 CE Windmills are Wind turbines

invented in the
Middle East.

700–900 CE Chinese invent Bullets

gunpowder and Fireworks
fireworks. Space rockets

800–1300 Thanks to inventors Clockwork

CE such as the Banū Cams and cranks
Mūsā brothers and Robots
al-Jazari, the Islamic
"Golden Age" sees
the development of a
 wide range of
technologies,
including ingenious
clocks and feedback
mechanisms that are
the ancestors of
modern automated
factory machines.

1000 CE ?? Chinese develop Lenses

eyeglasses by fixing
lenses to frames that
fit onto people's
faces.

1206 Arabic engineer al- Toilets

Jazari invents a
flushing hand-
washing machine,
one of the ancestors
of the modern toilet.

1232 CE Chinese repel Space rockets

Mongol invaders
using early rockets.

1450 Johannes Gutenberg Printing

pioneers the modern
printing press, using
rearrangeable metal
letters called
 movable type.

1470s The first parachute is Parachutes

sketched on paper by
an unknown
inventor.

16th century

1530s Gerardus Mercator Satellite navigation

helps to
revolutionize
navigation with
better mapmaking.

1590 A Dutch spectacle Microscopes

maker named Electron microscopes
Zacharias Janssen
makes the first
compound
microscope.

1596 Sir John Harington Toilets

describes one of the
first modern flush
toilets.

17th century

~1600 Galileo Galilei Thermometer

 designs a basic
thermometer.

1600 William Gilbert Magnetism

publishes his great
book De History of electricity
Magnete describing
how Earth behaves
like a giant magnet.
It's the beginning of
the scientific study
of magnetism.

1609 Galileo Galilei builds Space telescopes

a practical telescope
and makes new
astronomical
discoveries.

mid-17th Antoni van Microscopes

century Leeuwenhoek and Electron microscopes
Robert Hooke
independently
develop
microscopes.

1643 Galileo's pupil Barometers

Evangelista
Torricelli builds the
first mercury
barometer for
 measuring air
pressure.

1650s Christiaan Huygens Pendulum clocks

develops the
pendulum clock
(using Galileo's
earlier discovery that
a swinging pendulum
can be used to keep
time).

1687 Isaac Newton Motion

formulates his three Gravity
laws of motion and
gravity.

1700s Bartolomeo Pianos

Cristofori invents the
piano.

18th century

1701 English farmer Tractors

Jethro Tull begins
the mechanization of
agriculture by
inventing the horse-
drawn seed drill.

1703 Gottfried Leibniz How computers work

 pioneers the binary History of computers
number system now
used in virtually all
computers.

1712 Thomas Newcomen Steam engines

builds the first
practical (but
stationary) steam
engine.

1700s Christiaan Huygens Car engines

conceives the
internal combustion
engine, but never
actually builds one.

1737 William Champion Metals

develops a
commercially viable
process for
extracting zinc on a
large scale.

1757 John Campbell Satellite navigation

invents the sextant,
an improved
navigational device
that enables sailors
to measure latitude.
1730s– John Harrison Quartz clocks and
1770s develops reliable watches
chronometers Satellite navigation
(seafaring clocks)
that allow sailors to
measure longitude
accurately for the
first time.

1756 Axel Cronstedt Zeolites

notices steam when
he boils a rock—and
discovers zeolites.

1769 Wolfgang von Speech synthesizers

Kempelen develops a
mechanical speaking
machine: the world's
first speech
synthesizer.

1770s Abraham Darby III Bridges

builds a pioneering
iron bridge at a place
now called
Ironbridge in
England.

~1780 Josiah Wedgwood Pyrometers

(or Thomas Massey)
invents the
 pyrometer.

1783 French Brothers Hot-air balloons

Joseph-Michel
Montgolfier and
Jacques-Étienne
Montgolfier make
the first practical
hot-air balloon.

1791 Reverend William Titanium

Gregor, a British
clergyman and
amateur geologist,
discovers a
mysterious mineral
that he calls
menachite. Four
years later, Martin
Klaproth gives it its
modern name,
titanium.

19th century

1800 Italian Alessandro Electricity

Volta makes the first Batteries
battery (known as a History of electricity
Voltaic pile).

1801 Joseph-Marie History of computers

 Jacquard invents the
automated cloth-
weaving loom. The
punched cards it uses
to store patterns help
to inspire
programmable
computers.

1803 Henry and Sealy Paper

Fourdrinier develop
the papermaking
machine.

1806 Humphry Davy Electrolyzers

develops electrolysis
into an important
chemical technique
and uses it to identify
a number of new
elements.

1806 Sir William Space rockets

Congreve develops
long-range military
rockets, based on an
earlier Indian
technology known as
the Mysore rocket.

1807 Humphry Davy Xenon lamps

 develops the electric
arc lamp.

1814 George Stephenson Steam engines

builds the first
practical steam
locomotive.

1816 Robert Stirling Stirling engines

invents the efficient
Stirling engine.

1820s– Michael Faraday Electricity generators

1830s builds primitive Electric motors
electric generators Hub motors
and motors.

1824 Nicolas Sadi Carnot Heat engines

sets out his hugely
influential theory of
engine efficiency.

1827 Joseph Nicéphore Photography

Niépce makes the Digital cameras
first modern
photograph.

1830s William Sturgeon Electric motors

develops the first Hub motors
practical electric
motor.
1830s Louis Daguerre Digital cameras
invents a practical Photography
method of taking
pin-sharp
photographs called
Daguerreotypes.

1830s William Henry Fox Digital cameras

Talbot develops a Photography
way of making and
printing photographs
using reverse images
called negatives.

1830s– Charles Wheatstone Telephones

1840s and William Cooke,
in England, and
Samuel Morse, in the
United States,
develop the electric
telegraph (a
forerunner of the
telephone).

1836 Englishman Francis Propellers

Petit-Smith and
Swedish-American
John Ericsson
independently
develop propellers
with blades for ships.
1839 Charles Goodyear Rubber
finally perfects a
durable form of
rubber (vulcanized
rubber) after many
years of unsuccessful
experimenting.

1840s Scottish physicist Energy

James Prescott Joule Great physics
outlines the theory of experiments
the conservation of
energy.

1840s Scotsman Alexander Fax machines

Bain invents a
primitive fax
machine based on
chemical technology.

1849 James Francis Turbines

invents a water Water
turbine now used in
many of the world's
hydropower plants.

1850s Henry Bessemer Iron and steel

pioneers a new
method of making
steel in large
quantities.
1850s Louis Pasteur Pasteurization
develops
pasteurization: a way
of preserving food
by heating it to kill
off bacteria.

1850s Italian Giovanni Fax machines

Caselli develops a
mechanical fax
machine called the
pantelegraph.

1860s Frenchman Étienne Car engines

Lenoir and German Cars, history of
Nikolaus Otto
pioneer the internal
combustion engine.

1860s James Clerk Radio

Maxwell figures out
that radio waves
must exist and sets
out basic laws of
electromagnetism.

1860s Fire extinguishers Fire extinguisher

are invented.

1861 Elisha Graves Otis Elevators

invents the elevator
 with built-in safety
brake.

1867 Joseph Monier Reinforced concrete

invents reinforced
concrete.

1868 Christopher Latham Typewriters

Sholes invents the
modern typewriter
and QWERTY
keyboard.

1871 Frank Wenham, a Wind tunnels

British aeronautical Aerodynamics
engineer, invents the
wind tunnel.

1876 Alexander Graham Telephones

Bell patents the
telephone, though
the true ownership of
the invention
remains
controversial even
today.

1870s Thomas Edison CD players

develops the MP3 players
phonograph, the first
practical method of
 recording and
playing back sound
on metal foil.

1870s Lester Pelton invents Turbines

a useful new kind of
water turbine known
as a Pelton wheel.

1877 Thomas Edison Record players

invents his sound- Sound
recording machine or
phonograph—a
forerunner of the
record player and
CD player.

1877 Edward Very invents Flares

the flare gun (Very
pistol) for sending
distress flares at sea.

1880 Thomas Edison Incandescent lamps

patents the modern
incandescent electric
lamp.

1880 Pierre and Paul- Piezoelectricity

Jacques Curie
discover the
piezoelectric effect.
1880s Thomas Edison Power plants
opens the world's
first power plants.

1880s Charles Autoclaves

Chamberland invents
the autoclave (steam
sterilizing machine).

1880s Charles and Julia Aluminum

Hall and Paul
Heroult
independently
develop an
affordable way of
making aluminum.

1880s Carrie Everson Copper

invents new ways of
mining silver, gold,
and copper.

1881 Jacques d'Arsonval OTEC (Ocean

suggests heat energy Thermal Energy
could be extracted Conversion)
from the oceans.

1883 George Eastman Digital cameras

invents plastic Plastics
photographic film.
1884 Charles Parsons Steam turbines
develops the steam Turbines
turbine.

1885 Karl Benz builds a Car engines

gasoline-engined car.

1886 Josephine Cochran Dishwashers

invents the
dishwasher.

1888 Friedrich Reinitzer LCD screens and

discovers liquid displays
crystals.

1888 John Boyd Dunlop Pneumatics

patents air-filled
(pneumatic) tires.

1888 Nikola Tesla patents Electricity

the alternating Electric motors
current (AC) electric Induction motors
induction motor and, Power plants
in opposition to
Thomas Edison,
becomes a staunch
advocate of AC
power.

1899 Everett F. Morse Pyrometers

invents the optical
 pyrometer for
measuring
temperatures at a
safe distance.

1890s French brothers Projection TV

Joseph and Louis
Lumiere invent
movie projectors and
open the first movie
theater.

1890s German engineer Diesel engines

Rudolf Diesel
develops his diesel
engine—a more
efficient internal
combustion engine
without a sparking
plug.

1890s Russian Konstantin Space rockets

Tsiolkovsky figures
out the theory of
space rockets.

1894 Physicist Sir Oliver Radio

Lodge sends the first
ever message by
radio wave in
Oxford, England.
1895 German physicist X rays
Wilhelm Röntgen
discovers X rays.

1895 American Ogden Electric bikes

Bolton, Jr. invents
the electric bicycle.

1884 Charles G. Curtis Steam turbines

develops the
compound, impulse
steam turbine.

1898 Nikola Tesla invents Remote control

remote, radio
control.

20th century

1901 Guglielmo Marconi Radio

sends radio-wave
signals across the
Atlantic Ocean from
England to Canada

1901 The first electric Vacuum cleaners

vacuum cleaner is
developed.

1903 Brothers Wilbur and Airplanes

 Orville Wright build History of flight
the first engine-
powered airplane.

1905 Albert Einstein Photoelectric cells

explains the
photoelectric effect.

1905 Samuel J. Bens Chainsaws

invents the chainsaw.

1906 Willis Carrier Air conditioners

pioneers the air
conditioner.

1906 Mikhail Tswett Chromatography

discovers
chromatography.

1907 Leo Baekeland Plastics

develops Bakelite,
the first popular
synthetic plastic.

1907 Alva Fisher invents Clothes washer

the electric clothes
washer.

1906-8 Frederick Gardner Air pollution

Cottrell develops the Electrostatic smoke
 electrostatic smoke precipitators
precipitator
(smokestack
pollution scrubber).

1908 American Car engines

industrialist and Cars, history of
engineer Henry Ford
launches the Ford
Model T, the world's
first truly affordable
car.

1909 German chemists pH meters

Fritz Haber and
Zygmunt
Klemensiewicz
develop the glass
electrode, enabling
very precise
measurements of
acidity.

1910 Romanian-born Jet engines History of

Henri-Marie Coandă flight
builds a simple jet
plane, but it never
actually flies.

1912 American chemist Lithium-ion batteries

Gilbert Lewis
 describes the basic
chemistry that leads
to practical, lithium-
ion rechargeable
batteries (though
they don't appear in a
practical,
commercial form
until the 1990s).

1912 Hans Geiger Geiger counters

develops the Geiger
counter, a detector
for radioactivity.

1916 Robert Hutchings Space rockets

Goddard, an
American physicist,
publishes influential
ideas on building
space rockets.

1919 Francis Aston Mass spectrometers

pioneers the mass
spectrometer and
uses it to discover
many isotopes.

1920s John Logie Baird Television

develops mechanical LCD TV
television.
1920s Philo T. Farnsworth Television
invents modern LCD TV
electronic television.

1920s Robert H. Goddard Bullets

develops the Space rockets
principle of the
modern, liquid-
fueled space rocket.

1920s German engineer OCR

Gustav Tauschek and
American Paul
Handel
independently
develop primitive
optical character
recognition (OCR)
scanning systems.

1920s Albert W. Hull Magnetrons

invents the Microwave ovens
magnetron, a device
that can generate
microwaves from
electricity.

1921 Karel Capek and his Robots

brother coin the
word "robot" in a
play about artificial
 humans.

1921 John Larson Forensic science

develops the
polygraph ("lie
detector") machine.

1928 Thomas Midgley, Jr. Air conditioners

invents coolant Refrigerators
chemicals for air
conditioners and
refrigerators.

1928 The electric Refrigerators

refrigerator is
invented.

1920s– Frank Whittle of Jet engine

1930s England and Hans
Pabst von Ohain of
Germany develop
rival jet engines.

1930s Peter Goldmark Television

pioneers color LCD TV
television.

1930s Laszlo and Georg Digital pens

Biro pioneer the
modern ballpoint
pen.
1930s Maria Telkes creates Passive solar
the first solar- Solar cells
powered house.

1930s Wallace Carothers Kevlar

develops neoprene Nomex
(synthetic rubber Nylon
used in wetsuits) and Wetsuits
nylon, the first
popular synthetic
clothing material.

1930s Robert Watson Watt Radar

oversees the
development of
radar.

1930s Arnold Beckman pH meters

develops the
electronic pH meter.

1931 Harold E. Edgerton Xenon lamps

invents the xenon
flash lamp for high-
speed photography.

1932 Arne Olander Shape memory alloys

discovers the shape
memory effect in a
gold-cadmium alloy.
1936 W.B. Elwood invents Reed switches
the magnetic reed
switch.

1938 Chester Carlson Photocopiers

invents the principle
of photocopying
(xerography).

1938 Roy Plunkett GORE-TEX®

accidentally invents Nonstick pans
a nonstick plastic
coating called
Teflon®.

1939 Igor Sikorsky builds Helicopters

the first truly
practical helicopter.

1940s English physicists Magnetrons

John Randall and Radar
Harry Boot develop
a compact magnetron
for use in airplane
radar navigation
systems.

1942 Enrico Fermi builds Nuclear power

the first nuclear
chain reactor at the
University of
 Chicago.

1945 US government Electronic books

scientist Vannevar World Wide Web
Bush proposes a kind
of desk-sized
memory store called
Memex, which has
some of the features
later incorporated
into electronic books
and the World Wide
Web (WWW).

1945 Arthur C. Clarke Satellites

conceives the idea of
the communications
satellite, a space-
based signal "mirror"
that can bounce radio
waves from one side
of Earth to the other.

1947 John Bardeen, Amplifiers

Walter Brattain, and Electronics
William Shockley History of computers
invent the transistor, Transistors
which allows
electronic equipment
to made much
smaller and leads to
 the modern computer
revolution.

1949 Bernard Silver and Barcodes and barcode

N. Joseph Woodland scanners
patent barcodes—
striped patterns that
are initially
developed for
marking products in
grocery stores.

1950s Charles Townes and Lasers

Arthur Schawlow
invent the maser
(microwave laser).
Gordon Gould coins
the word "laser" and
builds the first
optical laser in 1958.

1950s Stanford Ovshinksy Batteries

develops various Electric bicycles
technologies that Electric cars
make renewable Solar cells
energy more
practical, including
practical solar cells
and improved
rechargeable
batteries.
1950s European bus Flywheels
companies
experiment with
using flywheels as
regenerative brakes

1950s Percy Spencer Microwave ovens

accidentally
discovers how to
cook with
microwaves,
inadvertently
inventing the
microwave oven.

1956 British computer Artificial intelligence

pioneer Alan Turing
describes an
"imitation game" for
testing whether
machines can think.
It's now known as
the Turing test.

1952 American John W. Airbags

Hetrick and German
Walter Linderer
independently invent
the automobile
airbag.
1954 Indian physicist Fiber optics
Narinder Kapany
pioneers fiber optics.

1955 US electrical Remote control

engineer Eugene
Polley invents the
TV remote control.

1956 First commercial Nuclear power plants

nuclear power is
produced at Calder
Hall, Cumbria,
England.

1956 US computer Artificial intelligence

scientist John
McCarthy coins the
term "artificial
intelligence."

1957 Soviet Union (Russia Satellites

and her allies) launch
the Sputnik space
satellite.

1957 Lawrence Curtiss, Fiber optics

Basil Hirschowitz,
and Wilbur Peters
build the first fiber-
optic gastroscope.
1958 Jack Kilby and History of computers
Robert Noyce, integrated circuits
working Transistors
independently,
develop the
integrated circuit.

1959 IBM and General Computer graphics

Motors develop
Design Augmented
by Computers-1
(DAC-1), the first
computer-aided
design (CAD)
system.

1960s Joseph-Armand Snowmobiles

Bombardier perfects
his Ski-Doo®
snowmobile.

1960 Theodore Maiman Lasers

invents the ruby
laser.

1962 William Armistead Photochromic lenses

and S. Donald
Stookey of Corning
Glass Works invent
light-sensitive
(photochromic)
 glass.

1962 Nick Holonyak Diodes and LEDs

invents the LED
(light-emitting
diode) while working
at General Electric.

1963 Ivan Sutherland Computer graphics

develops Sketchpad,
one of the first
computer-aided
design programs.

1964 IBM helps to pioneer E-commerce

e-commerce with an
airline ticket
reservation system
called SABRE.

1965 Frank Pantridge Defibrillators

develops the portable
defibrillator for
treating cardiac
arrest patients.

1966 Stephanie Kwolek Kevlar

patents a super-
strong plastic called
Kevlar.
1966 Robert H. Dennard Computer memory
of IBM invents
dynamic random
access memory
(DRAM).

1967 Japanese company Vacuum fluorescent

Noritake invents the displays
vacuum fluorescent
display (VFD).

1968 Alfred Y. Cho and Molecular beam

John R. Arthur, Jr epitaxy
invent a precise way
of making single
crystals called
molecular beam
epitaxy (MBE).

1969 World's first solar Solar cells

power station opened Energy
in France.

1969 Robert W. Gore GORE-TEX®

develops an
ingenious waterproof
material called
GORE-TEX® by
stretching slippery,
nonstick PTFE
(Teflon®).
1969 Long before Electronic books
computers become
portable, Alan Kay
imagines building an
electronic book,
which he nicknames
the Dynabook.

1969 Willard S. Boyle and CCDs

George E. Smith Digital cameras
invent the CCD
(charge-coupled
device): the light-
sensitive chip used in
digital cameras,
webcams, and other
modern optical
equipment.

1969 Astronauts walk on Space rockets

the Moon.

1960s Douglas Engelbart Computer mouse

develops the
computer mouse.

1960s James Russell CD players

invents compact
discs.

1971 Electronic ink is Electronic ink and

 pioneered by Nick paper
Sheridon at Xerox
PARC.

1971 Ted Hoff builds the History of computers

first single-chip
computer or
microprocessor.

1973 Martin Cooper Cellphones

develops the first
handheld cellphone
(mobile phone).

1973 Robert Metcalfe Computer networks

figures out a simple Internet
way of linking
computers together
that he names
Ethernet. Most
computers hooked up
to the Internet now
use it.

1974 First grocery-store Barcodes and barcode

purchase of an item scanners
coded with a
barcode.

1975 Whitfield Diffie and Encryption

Martin Hellman
 invent public-key
cryptography.

1975 Pico Electronics Smart homes

develops X-10 home
automation system.

1976 Steve Wozniak and History of computers

Steve Jobs launch
the Apple I: one of
the world's first
personal home
computers

1970s– James Dyson invents Vacuum cleaners

1980s the bagless, cyclonic
vacuum cleaner.

1970s– Scientists including Quantum computers

1980s Charles Bennett,
Paul Benioff,
Richard Feynman,
and David Deutsch
sketch out how
quantum computers
might work.

1980s Japanese electrical CD players

pioneer Akio Morita MP3 players
develops the Sony
Walkman, the first
 truly portable player
for recorded music.

1981 Stung by Apple's History of computers

success, IBM
releases its own
affordable personal
computer (PC).

1981 The Space Shuttle Space Shuttle

makes its maiden
voyage.

1981 Patricia Bath Lasers

develops laser eye
surgery for removing
cataracts.

1981 Fujio Masuoka files Flash memory

a patent for flash
memory—a type of
reusable computer
memory that can
store information
even when the power
is off.

1981– 1982 Alexei Ekimov and Quantum dots

Louis E. Brus
(independently)
discover quantum
 dots.

1983 Compact discs (CDs) CD players

are launched as a
new way to store
music by the Sony
and Philips
corporations.

1987 Larry Hornbeck, DLP® projectors

working at Texas
Instruments,
develops DLP®
projection—now
used in many
projection TV
systems.

1989 Tim Berners-Lee Internet

invents the World World Wide Web
Wide Web.

1990 German Radio-controlled

watchmaking clocks
company Junghans Quartz clocks and
introduces the watches
MEGA 1, believed to
be the world's first
radio-controlled
wristwatch.
1991 Linus Torvalds Computers
creates the first Linux
version of Linux, a
collaboratively
written computer
operating system.

1994 American-born Iris scans

mathematician John
Daugman perfects
the mathematics that
make iris scanning
systems possible.
1994 Japanese Masahiro QR codes and 2D
Hara invents a two- barcodes
dimensional barcode
known as the QR
Code®.

1994 Israeli computer VoIP

scientists Alon
 Cohen and Lior
Haramaty invent
VoIP for sending
telephone calls over
the Internet.

1995 Broadcast.com Streaming media

becomes one of the
world's first online
radio stations.

1995 Pierre Omidyar E-commerce

launches the eBay
auction website.

1996 WRAL-HD HDTV

broadcasts the first
high-definition
television (HDTV)
signal in the United
States.

1997 Electronics Wireless Internet

companies agree to
make Wi-Fi a
worldwide standard
for wireless Internet.

21st century

2001 Apple revolutionizes MP3 players

 music listening by
unveiling its iPod
MP3 music player.

2001 Richard Palmer Energy-absorbing

develops energy- materials
absorbing D3O
plastic.

2001 The Wikipedia Electronic books

online encyclopedia
is founded by Larry
Sanger and Jimmy
Wales.

2001 Bram Cohen BitTorrent

develops BitTorrent Internet
file-sharing.

2001 Scott White, Nancy Self-healing materials

Sottos, and
colleagues develop
self-healing
materials.

2002 iRobot Corporation Roomba

releases the first Robots
version of its
Roomba® vacuum
cleaning robot.
2004 Electronic voting Touchscreens
plays a major part in
a controversial US
Presidential Election.

2004 Andre Geim and Graphene

Konstantin
Novoselov discover
graphene.

2005 A pioneering low- Computers

cost laptop for
developing countries
called OLPC is
announced by MIT
computing pioneer
Nicholas
Negroponte.

2007 Amazon.com Electronic books

launches its Kindle
electronic book (e-
book) reader.

2007 Apple introduces a Cellphones

touchscreen Touchscreens
cellphone called the
iPhone.

2010 Apple releases its Computers

touchscreen tablet Touchscreens
 computer, the iPad.

2010 3D TV starts to 3D Television

become more widely Television
available.

2013 Elon Musk Pneumatics

announces Pneumatic transport
"hyperloop"—a tube
giant, pneumatic
tube transport
system.

2015 Supercomputers (the Supercomputers

world's fastest
computers) are now
a mere 30 times less
powerful than human
brains.

2016 Three Nanotechnology

nanotechnologists
win the Nobel Prize
in Chemistry for
building miniature
machines out of
molecules.

2019 Google claims to Quantum computers

have achieved
"quantum
 supremacy"—with a
quantum computer
that calculates faster
than a conventional
one.

2020 DeepMind, Neural networks

Google/Alphabet's Artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence
computer program,
cracks the classic
problem of protein
folding.

2022 NASA unveils Space Space rockets

Launch System
(SLS), a new moon
rocket 15 percent
more powerful than
the Saturn V rocket
from the Apollo era.

2023 Microsoft announces Artificial intelligence

a new version of its
Bing search engine
incorporating
ChatGPT, an
"artificially
intelligent" chatbot,
for smarter answers
to search queries.