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Do you have any cool stories (preferably true) about smart and innovative ideas?

For instance, I'd read (about how WWII bombers were provided additional armour based on bullet hole analysis (seen towards the end of http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/fordpart.asp), and that sounded really neat.

Anything similar that you're aware of?

The microwave oven, which came about because some WWII radar engineer wondered why the chocolate bar in his pocket got soft & messy when he walked in front of the radar antenna.

Velcro, invented by a guy trying to reproduce the grip/stick effect of thistles/burdocks after pulling them out of his dog's coat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glide_Path Arthur C. Clarke's novel about the development of Ground Controlled Approach in WWII.

Going with the "scientific breakthrough based on nature" example, winglets used on most modern passenger jets massively increase the lift efficiency of the wings by preventing vortex rolloff. This was an innovation based on studying the relatively small wingspan for such a heavy bird as the Steppe Eagle, and mimics the upturned feathers on the eagle's wingtips. If the Steppe Eagle had a more typical wing it would need to be longer and the turning circle would be too large to allow it to stay within the updraught columns of warm air.

For hundreds of similar things, Google 'Biomimicry'.

Another suggesting is a book I read several years ago called Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford. The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others.

Thank you, that has led to some very interesting material!

Captain Ned wrote:

Velcro, invented by a guy trying to reproduce the grip/stick effect of thistles/burdocks after pulling them out of his dog's coat.

The Velcro story is really nice - I always thought (wrongly) that Velcro was a NASA spin-off, but NASA themselves clarified that it wasn't them.

notfred wrote:

Glide_Path: Arthur C. Clarke's novel about the development of Ground Controlled Approach in WWII.

Another nice one - and there's a Kindle version!

Chrispy_ wrote:

For hundreds of similar things, Google 'Biomimicry'.

Thank you, I did not know that term.

Most recent one I learned about would be John Snow and a certain beer brewery.

There was a severe Cholera outbreak in 1854 London minimized around a several block radius, and at the time medical opinion was that it was an airborne disease. Snow not only defied the evac order but went door-to-door creating a map of residents that were infected or had died from it, supposedly also credited with the creation of spot maps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad ... a_outbreak With it he discovered that the outbreak was not only centered around a newly installed water pump, but also that a local brewery in the middle of the outbreak zone had zero infections. Combined with his own theories he proved that Cholera was a water contamination based illness, and that that the alcohol in the beer could purify the water to make it safe to drink. The end result he invented public water chlorination that we use today.

Since you mentioned beer. Beer and other alcoholic beverages were the main reason civilizations flourished. These drinks were around along with the earliest civilizations.

Here is a post from Forbs magazine

Some archeologists have seen beer as a key to civilization for many decades, but Hayden says the evidence is growing stronger, and he plans to publish his findings in the journal Current Anthropology. Find out more in this report from LiveScience.com.