National Academy of Engineering
Health Technologies Timeline
Find a timeline of important medical inventions of the 20th century. Inventions include the first electrocardiograph, the first kidney dialysis machine, the first plastic contact lens, and the first artificial heart.
Birmingham Museums Trust (UK)
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery: The Victorians Inventions
Try to identify the inventions form the Victorian era, and then learn more about each discovery.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How the Stethoscope Was Invented | Moments of Vision 7
The stethoscope is the single most widely used medical instrument in the world. But where did the idea come from? Jessica Oreck shares the modest origins of this incredibly useful item. [1:48]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: Robert Jarvik: Artificial Heart
Read about Robert Koffler Jarvik, the "inventor of the first permanently-implantable artificial heart." This article provides a biography of the inventor, the reasons why he became interested in creating an artificial heart, and his...
New York Times
New York Times: 32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow
If you don't know that the incandescent light was a failure before it was a success, it's easy to write off some modern energy innovations like solar panels because they haven't hit the big time fast enough. Worse, the fairy-tale view of...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: Raymond Damadian: Medical Resonance Scanning Machine
Read about the education and career of Raymond V. Damadian, inventor of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and learn how the MRI has impacted the field of medicine.
Other
Business Insider: 20 Everyday Things We Have Because of Nasa
A list of space technologies that have been integrated into common items from invisible braces to memory foam. NASA produces a list like this every year to illustrate the benefits to the program's existence. Click on each item listed to...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: Dean Kamen: Portable Medication Technology
Here is information on Dean Kamen's education, career, and his contributions to the medical world. Learn about his "revolutionary, pocket-sized infusion pump [that] allowed patients to reeceive regulated intravenous medication."
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: Colin Twitchell: Multi Terrain Wheelchair
This site provides information on Colin S. Twitchell, inventor of the multi-terrain wheelchair. Learn what inspired Twitchell and about his career at MIT.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: Ivan Yaeger: Prosthetic Arm
Learn about the development of the prosthetic arm by Ivan Yaeger. This article talks about his work creating articial limbs for a little girl born without arms and how these limbs worked.
National Museum of Science and Industry (UK)
Ingenious: Do We Need the Telephone?
The telephone has been a marvelous technological invention. Its successes, failures, and consequences are looked at in this website.
Digital History
Digital History: Resistance to Technological Innovation
Hinderances to technological advances included poor education and hostility to innovation and experimentation. See how this opposition was overcome by the many smalltime tinkerers and inventors who ignited people's interest in technology.
Other
Mit Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine by MIT which seeks to "promote the understanding of emerging technologies and their impact on business and society." It provides you with daily technology information including events, discussions, and...
PBS
Pbs: Who Made America? Willis Carrier
Find information about the life and work of Willis Carrier, the inventor of the air conditioner, at this PBS site devoted to the role of technology in society. Site visitors can locate Carrier on a timeline, along with other...
BBC
Bbc News: The Road to Riches: The 2nd Industrial Revolution
A brief look at some of the inventions and technologies associated with the second industrial revolution, which came into existence thanks to the new discoveries made by chemists and physicists. Offers a look at how these advancements...
Calisphere: University of California Libraries
University of California: Calisphere: 1900 1940s: The Rise of Technology
Primary source photographs depicting new technologies and communications at the turn of the 20th century and how lives changed as a result.
NASA
Nasa E Clips: Nasa's Launchpad: The Great Boomerang Challenge [Pdf]
Students use the principles of technological and engineering design to research and explain how airfoil shape affects flight characteristics and how it applies to boomerang flight.. They will work in teams to design, build, test, and...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: America in Class: The Radio: Blessing or Curse? A 1929 Debate
Lesson on how the debate over commercial radio reflected American attitudes toward technological change in the 1920s. Includes teacher notes, background, strategies for text analysis and close reading questions as well as follow-up and...
American Academy of Achievement
Academy of Achievement: Ray Kurzweil
Biographical information on Ray Kurzweil offers details about his life, inventions and work as a pioneer in artificial intelligence.
Other
Internet Society: A Brief History of the Internet
A brief history of the internet, written by those who were involved in the development evolution of the Internet. This history revolves around four distinct aspects: the technological evolution, operations and management aspect of a...
PBS
Pbs: Technology and Discoveries
Biographical survey of people who had an impact on 20th century technology and science, including Wallace Carothers, Rachel Carson, Lee de Forest, Henry Ford, Jay Forrester, Grace Murray Hopper, Guglielmo Marconi, William Shockley,...
PBS
American Experience: Technology Timeline: 1752 1990
Short descriptions of important technological innovations produced in America and the date of their introduction.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Our Earliest Technology?
Made nearly two million years ago, stone tools such as the handaxe are the first known technological invention. View a picture and read the description of this early stone tool.
Canada Science and Technology Museum
Canada Science and Technology Museum: Washing Machines
The Canada Science and Technology Museum tells the story of the evolution of the washing machine. Starting from the laborious laundry procedure of washing clothes by hand, learn how laundry was first mechanized. Then, came the...