It All Started with the Wheel. The Evolution of Inventions: from the Axe to the Laser

Are brilliant inventions the result of random flashes of inspiration or long, painstaking work? Sometimes remarkable things arise simply from the desire to help contemporaries.

With this book, you will journey through a succession of eras, from stone tools to humanoid robots, from the cradle of humanity in Africa to the flourishing of digital technologies in California. Your companions will be Archimedes, Ibn al-Haytham, Leonardo da Vinci, Alfred Nobel, Mikhail Kalashnikov, and Steve Jobs.

You will learn how people lived without clocks and what temperature the first thermometer measured. Why the Ada83 programming language is named after the daughter of poet Byron, and when, at last, we will be able to wear spray-on clothing and talk to our pets through a translator.

Engaging, slightly ironic stories by Denis Gutleben about inventors and inventions will introduce you to unexpected historical facts and allow you to look at the things we use today in a new light, without a second thought.