Inventors Science

Inventing is all about ideas—ideas for making products better or creating new ones. To put these ideas into action, young inventors need tools for tinkering. Find out how to put together your own inventor's workshop with simple tools and common household objects.

Do you have a need for speed? Does power make your heart pound? In Zoom It, you’ll invent a gas-powered boat, a catapult, an electric car, and many other amazing moving contraptions. When it comes to inventing, your imagination has no limits!

How did forgetting to wash a jar make cars safer? A scientist named Édouard Bénédictus accidentally dropped a plastic-coated flask that did not break. This invention was tested and engineered to help today's windshields protect drivers better.

Thomas Edison wasn't just an inventor. He was also a physicist and businessman. Young listeners will discover how he became a great scientist whose inventions made a better life for most everyone.

Explore the lives and achievements of the Wright Brothers.

Explore the life and achievements of Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first woman doctor.

They never knew how he did it. Few composers write more than one or two symphonies in their lifetimes. Beethoven spent a year on his shorter symphonies but more than six years on his 9th Symphony. The prodigy Mozart finished his last three symphonies (39, 40, and 41) in the span of a few weeks. His 25th Symphony took only two days.

Hear about some of the world's greatest gadget disasters. Find out how each gadget failed, what went wrong with its design or manufacture, and what programmers learned from their mistakes.

Hidden Energy: Tesla-Inspired Inventors and a Mindful Path to Energy Abundance gives reasons for optimism. This audiobook readies you for humankind's next leap - tapping into ample sources of truly clean power, the ultimate renewable. Making that leap is more about mindsets and a consciousness shift than technology.

In ancient China, an alchemist mixed an exploding medicine and accidentally invented gunpowder. Learn about the development of gunpowder and other explosives, like nitroglycerin and dynamite, in this fun feature.

Can you imagine having to sit still for 30 minutes just to have your picture taken? Or having to send film away to be developed? Technology has come a long way since then! Listen to learn about photography inventions like flashbulbs, Kodak and Polaroid cameras, and more!

Some kids are born missing a hand or fingers, others lose them because of accidents. Find out how people are printing artificial hands on 3-D printers to help those who need a hand. They are cheap, easy to build, and really work!

In medicine, machines can be used to take detailed pictures of bones and even to save people’s lives. Listen to learn about the marvelous machines of modern medicine, like the defibrillator, the x-ray machine, and more!

Have you ever heard of a bed that dumps you out if you try to hit snooze on your alarm clock? The “early rising machine” was one of John Muir’s many inventions. He loved to use his innovation and creativity to come up with new technology. If you could invent anything you want, what would you make?

Have you ever wished you could have Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak? At some point soon, you just might be able to get one! Scientists are experimenting with a special material that bends light so the material is concealed. They still have a long way to go, but if they succeed, it could be one of the coolest inventions of the century!

Nikola Tesla was a major figure in the world in which he lived. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, it was Tesla who would contribute to some of the world's most amazing inventions. It was Tesla's theories, patents, and experiments that would pave the way for the digital, wireless world we are so familiar with today. Tesla didn't enjoy the high honors bestowed on so many of his contemporaries, yet he enjoyed the power of knowing that it was his inventions that were powering the world, literally.

Frank Einstein (kid-genius scientist and inventor) and his best friend Watson, along with Klink (a self-assembled artificial intelligence entity), create the BrainTurbo to power-boost the human body and help their baseball-pitching pal Janegoodall make the team. But when Klank (a mostly self-assembled and artificial almost intelligence entity) goes missing, they must first rescue their robot pal and stop T. Edison - Frank’s classmate and archrival - from stealing their latest invention and using it against them!

Our world is teeming with robots. Robotic arms build cars in factories. Military robots disarm bombs in war zones. And robot vacuum cleaners suck the dirt off our floors. But how do all of these robots work? From their computer brains to their super sensors, learn how robots are changing the world we live in.

Have you ever seen a John Deere tractor? John Deere’s farm equipment brand is famous around the world, but it wasn’t an easy path to turn his ideas into reality. Listeners will love learning the story behind the name as they follow along with John’s beginnings as a blacksmith, obstacles in business, and eventual massive success.

Have you ever ridden a Ferris Wheel? Do you know who created it? George Ferris’s wheels can be found around the world today, but it wasn’t an easy path to turn his idea into a reality. Listeners will love learning the story behind the name as they follow along with George’s beginnings in civil engineering, the trouble he had convincing people the Ferris Wheel could be safe, and his eventual world-renowned success.