Humankind’s extraordinary gift for invention has transformed our world to make it unrecognizable to our ancestors. Some inventions seem mundane but had wide-ranging effects on society, such as the first sewers or supermarkets. Others are more spectacular, like the invention of the jet engine or industrial robots.
All these inventions have one thing in common. They have changed the way we live. In this series, we investigate the successes – and the failures – of inventive people throughout the ages.