杰克•查洛纳曾在位于伦敦的帝国理工学院学习物理，并在泰晤士河畔金斯顿接受教师培训。后进入伦敦科学博物馆教育部门工作，工作内容主要是向游客讲解各种科学知识。截至目前，杰克已经编著了近30部著作，题材涉及各个时代的科学和技术知识，同时还担任许多其他著作的科学编辑顾问。他还在许多正式或非正式的教育场合进行科学秀表演。

We take thousands of inventions for granted, using them daily and enjoying their benefits. But how much do we really know about their origins and development? This absorbing new book tells the stories behind the inventions that have changed the world, with details abouta LI Convenience items, such as safety pins, toothbrushes, and bifocals LI Weapons of war, including explosives, gunpowder, and shrapnel shells LI Industrial advances, such as the steam engine and the power loom for weaving LI Transportation advances, including the airplane, the diesel engine, the automobile, and the air-inflated rubber tire LI Electronic marvels, including color television, the microprocessor, the personal computer, the compact disc, and the cell phone LI Medical advances, from antiseptic surgery to the electron microscope. . . and much more. Inventors and pioneers of science and technology, including Eli Whitney, James Watt, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Bessemer, Thomas Edison, J.B. Dunlop, the Wright Brothers, Werner von Braun, Jonas Salk, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and many others are also discussed. Fascinating photos and illustrations complement authoritative summaries of each invention, and remarkable quotations from many of the inventors add to this chronicle of human ingenuity that began some 6,000 years ago with the invention of the wheel. Approximately 700 photos and illustrations in color and black and white.