The telescope is the invention that has allowed the great discovery of the universe itself. Over the millennia, humans built ever more elaborate constructions aligned with the heavens, revealing our ancient fascination with the night sky.

A look at inventions that gave humans the ability to fly, from Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines to modern commercial planes.

Robots are first conceptualized in ancient Rome; how uses for robots have evolved over the centuries, from the calculator to the Roomba; what future robots might be able to do.

The 9,000-year history of the car, from its roots in dog sleds to Henry Ford's Model T; the next generation of self-driving automobiles.

The incredible story of that amazing invention, the rocket; it took a teenage genius, a Chinese monk, a Soviet plot and a butter machine to give us the ability to leave the Earth.

Few inventions have revolutionized our everyday existence like the smartphone. It put the world's knowledge in our hands, democratized news-gathering and through social media, connected billions of people in a way that wasn't possible before.