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UNUSUAL INVENTIONS
Thomas Edison's talking dolls in 1890 became nightmare fuel due to creepy voice recordings. Its eerie sound earned it the name ‘little monsters’Thomas Edison’s talking dolls were designed to delight children with recorded nursery rhymes, but their strange voices made the toys far le...- In 1892, Jesse Reno tilted a moving walkway to 25 degrees; four years later, about 75,000 people rode his strange new “inclined elevator” at Coney IslandIn 1892, Jesse Wilford Reno patented a moving conveyor designed to transport people between different levels. His invention was first exhib...
- In 1912, Beulah Louise Henry patented a vacuum ice cream freezer; it became the first of more than 100 inventions that made her famous as “Lady Edison”Beulah Louise Henry, often referred to as Lady Edison, was a groundbreaking inventor who created over 100 innovative products throughout he...
- AI rapidly improving, could vastly boost US GDP: Anthropic's Clark tells policymakersClark, speaking at IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, said that international cooperation was needed to erect "unusual and seri...
- A rare-book dealer acquired a medieval manuscript filled with strange writing in 1912; 114 years later, no decipherment has won broad acceptanceThe Voynich Manuscript is one of history's greatest unsolved mysteries. The medieval document, illustrated and bought in 1912 by rare-book ...
- Anne Carson wins 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature: Who is this poet who made Ancient Greek stories feel new again? Here's what makes her writing so uniqueAnne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, recognizing her innovative literary contributions. The Swedish Academy com...
- Anne Carson Nobel Prize 2026: Why did the Canadian poet win? How her unusual work brought Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe togetherRenowned Canadian poet Anne Carson has been awarded the prestigious 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. Known for her innovative blending of po...
- How 90 Claude Opus 5.5 agents found a 27-year-old compound in 3 days to solve computing's heat problemMore than 90 Claude Opus 5.5 agents spent three days searching for materials that could enable cooler spin-based computing. They identified...
- In 1864, missionaries recorded Rapa Nui’s Rongorongo glyphs on wooden tablets. 162 years later, the writing system remains undeciphered despite generations of scholarly studyNew findings indicate that a wooden tablet inscribed with Rongorongo dates back to 1493 to 1509. This timeline suggests that the writing sy...
- Word of the Day: Confabulate, what it means, where it came from and how to use itThe word "confabulate" has two distinct uses in English. It can mean engaging in conversation, while in psychology and medicine it describe...
- Quote of the day by Thomas Edison: 'The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.' Life lessons from motivational quote on natural imagination, curiosity, limitless creativity, original thinking, active learning and pure potentialQuote of the day by Thomas Edison, “The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child,” focuses on curiosity, imagination, origina...
- In 1873, San Francisco tested underground cable cars for hills too steep for horse-drawn streetcars; the city’s cable cars still climb those streets todaySan Francisco's cable cars represent a rich part of the city's heritage, facing elimination on two notable occasions. Inventor Andrew Smith...
- Meet Matthew Sleman, the boy who thought about patents at 5 and turned ordinary plastic building bricks into color-changing blocks that earned him one of the youngest US patentsMatthew Sleman’s innovation journey began when he was just 5 years old and became curious about intellectual property and patents. Looking ...
- In 1940, Frederick McKinley Jones patented a refrigerator tough enough for moving trucks; it changed how fresh meat and dairy could travel long distancesIn 1940, Frederick McKinley Jones revolutionized the transportation of perishables by patenting a refrigeration unit specifically for truck...
- In 1930, Albert Einstein and another physicist patented a refrigerator with no moving parts; why did their invention never reach your kitchen?In a remarkable collaboration, Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard advanced the world of refrigeration with a groundbreaking patent. Their desi...
- In 1873, a French astronomer invented a unique device 'photographic revolver' which could automatically capture a sequential series of photographsIn 1873, a French astronomer invented a unique device 'photographic revolver' which could automatically capture a sequential series of phot...
- In 2011, Ashton Kutcher invested $500,000 in Uber; 5 years later, his stake was worth more than $60 million as the ride-hailing company expandedIn 2011, Ashton Kutcher invested $500,000 in Uber when the ride-hailing startup was still finding its footing. Five years later, his stake ...
- Meet Callie, the 7-year-old Manchester inventor who beat more than 1,600 young competitors with a machine that combines a task dispenser and rubber-duck launcherSeven-year-old Callie from Manchester has won a nationwide invention competition after creating the “Task Firing Driveable Bath,” an imagin...
- Two 14-year-old Arizona schoolboys built robot to remove microplastics from water using LEGO, duct tape and pool noodlesTwo Arizona students created a robot to remove microplastics from waterways. Their invention, MP Guard, uses common items like LEGO and poo...
- Meet Soren Plante, the 5-year-old Utah inventor who became the world’s youngest active patent holder with a commercially useful gardening robotAt just five, Soren Plante had already done something most inventors spend years trying to achieve. The Utah youngster became the world’s y...
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