• Question: What inventions do you find inspiring?

    Asked by 679spcc32 to Camilla, Dan, Katie, Mike, Rhys on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Katie Sparks

      Katie Sparks answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Lots of the old ones, it’s hard to image life if we hadn’t had those earlier inventions: trains are a particular favourite of mine – in fact – the man himself is really inspiring: Stephenson didn’t learn to read or write until he was 18! And then, he set up the Institute for Mechanical Engineering and opened up a mine which had some really early mining technology, but also had the best living conditions (for the time) that any any workplace had before. I think that is incredible.

      There are then 3 others: computers (incredible work and the early mechanical versions are so complex), the internet (we couldn’t do this without it!) and smartphones – they have really changed how we live. It is incredible, travel is easier, if you’re late you can let people know – from a practical point of view, they are great. They’re also fun, which counts for a lot!

    • Photo: Camilla Weiss

      Camilla Weiss answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I still think smartphone are one of the most amazing inventions in recent times – it’s really easy to take them for granted and forget just how much technology goes into them but it’s a lot! They combine so many incredible technologies -long range communication, internet, optics, video, processing… The fact that we’ve been able to fit so much into them is a demonstration of how much science and engineering have progressed over the last few decades and that’s pretty inspiring.

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