'Robocops’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo
After the death of her brother, engineer Thérèse Izay Kirongozi got to work handmaking huge robots to direct traffic and save lives. In 2013 they were installed on the streets of Kinshasa, in the Demo...
11 Okt 202410min
How the QR code was invented
In 1994, bar codes were in widespread use in businesses around the world, but the Japanese car component company, Denso Wave, wanted something quicker.So they asked one of their engineers, Masahiro Ha...
10 Okt 202410min
The world's first general purpose electronic computer
In 1946, one of the world’s first electronic computers was unveiled in Philadelphia, in the USA. It was called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, and was initially designed to...
9 Okt 20249min
WABOT-1: The first humanoid robot
Scientists at Waseda University in Japan built the world's first humanoid robot in 1973. They called it the 'WABOT', the Waseda robot. It could see, walk and even talk. It was a huge leap forward in t...
8 Okt 20249min
Eliza: When chatbots started
Eliza is the name of a 1966 invention by German born scientist, Joseph Weizenbaum, that is said to be the first chatbot.Eliza worked by someone typing their feelings into a computer keyboard, and then...
7 Okt 202410min
The longest plane hijacking in Latin America
In 1973, two men pretending to be Colombian guerrillas took a plane and flew across Latin America for 60 hours. It was the longest hijacking of an aircraft in the region.The SAM Airlines plane stopped...
4 Okt 20249min
The speech that inspired the Law of the Sea
In November 1967, the Maltese diplomat, Arvid Pardo, addressed the United Nations with a remarkable speech that shaped the laws governing the sea.Pardo's message is immortalised in the United Nations ...
3 Okt 20249min
South Africa’s nuclear weapons
In 1989, South Africa became the first, and only country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons.The project was conducted at Kentron Circle, a secret weapons facility.André Buys was plant manager ...
2 Okt 20249min
