Showing titles in Science & Technology

The inspiring tale of a seamstress-turned-scientist who invented the world's first aquarium at a time when women in STEM were startlingly rare. The daughter of a seamstress and a cobbler, Jeanne Villepreux-Power began her career as a dressmaker, sewing beautiful gowns for the Parisian...

Discover the man behind the chocolate bar! Milton Hershey’s life was filled with invention and innovation. As a young man, he was not afraid to dream big and work hard. Eventually, he learned the secret to mass-producing milk chocolate and the recipe that gave it a longer, more stable shelf...

Sir Henry Morgan beherrschte als britischer Freibeuteradmiral die Weltmeere, als 1669 sein Flaggschiff "HMS Oxford", das größte englische Kriegsschiff, unterging. Man war mitten im Gelage, um die bevorstehende Plünderung von Catagena zu feiern, als es zur Explosion kam und die stolze "HMS Oxford" mit den anderen Schiffen der Flotte auf den sandigen Grund der Karibik sank. Über dreihundert Jahre störte niemand ihre Ruhe.

Peitschende Stürme, lauernde Jaguare, die gefräßigen Alligatoren des Orinoco - nichts kann den jungen preußischen Forschungsreisenden Alexander von Humboldt davon abhalten, seine Studien über die Zusammenhänge der Natur voranzutreiben. Seit er ein Kind war, hat er von dieser Expedition geträumt. Begleitet von seinem treuen Freund, dem französischen Botaniker Aimé Bonpland, unternimmt Humboldt zwischen 1799 und 1804 seine so berühmte wie gefährliche Amerikareise.

Schon als Kind ist Jane unglaublich neugierig auf alles, doch Tiere haben es ihr besonders angetan. Sie liebt sie über alles und beobachtet sie fasziniert. Als Vierjährige versteckt sie sich im Hühnerstall, um herauszufinden, wie das mit der Henne und dem Ei funktioniert. Am liebsten liest sie Bücher über Tiere. Besonders die Geschichten von Tarzan verschlingt sie und entdeckt dabei ihre Liebe zu Afrika. Diese Sehnsucht lässt sie nicht mehr los und sie bekommt die Chance, die ihr Leben für immer verändert.

1961. Die beiden Weltmächte USA und Sowjetunion sind mitten im Kalten Krieg - und mitten im Wettlauf um die Vorherrschaft im Weltall. Nachdem 1957 der Satellit Sputnik 1 erfolgreich in den Weltraum geschossen wurde, gelingt dem russischen Kosmonauten Juri Gagarin der erste bemannte Weltraumflug. Der damalige Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten, John F. Kennedy, reagiert darauf mit einer neuen Zielsetzung für die USA.

Der berühmte britische Forschungsreisende David Livingstone kam 1841 als Missionar und Arzt nach Südafrika und unternahm seit 1849 große Expeditionen ins Landesinnere. Er war der erste Forscher, der den ganzen Kontinent von Westen nach Osten durchquerte und wurde schon zu Lebzeiten zu einer Legende. 1868 galt Livingstone als verschollen, da man seit Jahren kein Lebenszeichen mehr von ihm erhalten hatte.

You know the Super Soaker. It's one of the top 20 toys of all time. And it was an accidental discovery that brought it into being. Trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, inventor Lonnie Johnson instead created the mechanics for the iconic toy. A love of rockets, robots, and inventions and a mind for creativity were present in Lonnie Johnson's early life.

Robert Fulton's failure as a painter led to one of the most important technological advances of the industrial age: the steamboat. Fulton's designs and personal influence linked together America's waterways and revolutionized trade and travel for a century to come.

Did you know that Albert Einstein was a high-school dropout and that he failed his physics class when he finally made it to college? Or that when he died, his brain and eyeballs were removed from his body? Have you ever wondered why his hair looked so wild? Siblings Paige and Turner have - and they’ve collected some of the kookiest and most unusual facts about him, from his childhood and school days through his time studying relativity and working on the atomic bomb. 

Meriwether Lewis had been commissioned by President Jefferson to lead a daring expedition so remarkable it would become one of the most famous explorations in history. He chose as his co-captain William Clark. Their mission—to find a land route to the Pacific Ocean while learning as much as possible about the thousands of miles of unexplored territory they struggled through (1774-1809).

David Aguilar was born missing part of one arm, a small detail that seemed to define his life and limit people’s ideas of who he was and who he could be. But in this funny and heartfelt memoir, David proves that he can throw out the rulebook and people’s expectations and maybe even make a difference in the world—and all with a sense of humor.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867, Marie Curie was forbidden to attend the male-only University of Warsaw, so she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study physics and mathematics. There she met a professor named Pierre Curie, and the two soon married, forming one of the most famous...

As young boys, Orville and Wilbur Wright loved all things mechanical. As young men, they gained invaluable skills essential for their success by working with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and any sort of machinery they could get their hands on. As adults, the brothers worked together to...

The fascinating, little-known story of how two brilliant female physicists’ groundbreaking discoveries led to the creation of the atomic bomb. In 1934, Irène Curie, working with her husband and fellow scientist, Frederic Joliot, made a discovery that would change the world: artificial...

In the 1960s, locked in a heated race to launch the first human into space, the United States selected seven superstar test pilots and former military air fighters to NASA's astronaut class - the Mercury 7. The men endured grueling training and constant media attention for the honor of becoming America's first space heroes. But a group of 13 women - accomplished air racers, test pilots, and flight instructors - were enduring those same astronaut tests in secret, hoping to defy social norms and earn a spot among the stars.

In this kids' biography, follow the remarkable life story of Albert Einstein, whose legendary genius and creative imagination made him one of the world's most famous thinkers.

Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford started off as insatiably curious tinkerers. That curiosity led them to become inventors - with very different results. As Edison invented hit after commercial hit, gaining fame and fortune, Henry struggled to make a single invention (an affordable car) work. Witnessing Thomas' glorious career from afar, a frustrated Henry wondered about the secret to his success.

Jeanne Villepreux-Power was never expected to be a scientist. Born in 1794 in a French village more than 100 miles from the ocean, she pursued an improbable path that brought her to the island of Sicily. There, she took up natural history and solved the two-thousand-year-old mystery of how the argonaut octopus gets its shell. In an era when most research focused on dead specimens, Jeanne was determined to experiment on living animals. And to keep sea creatures alive for her studies, she had to invent a contraption to hold them: the aquarium. 

Meet the Wizard of Menlo Park, and see how he grew from a lonely, inquisitive boy who carried out experiments in his basement to the smart, enterprising, and imaginative inventor who gave us the stock-market ticker, helped develop the phonograph and cinema, and even came up with the first storage battery and electric car.