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Technology

31 entries

All Technology (A–Z) A–Z By date
A B C D E F H I L M N O P R S T W

A

ARPANET and the Birth of the Internet
The Cold War research network that grew into a global communications system
The Artificial Heart
The Jarvik-7, 112 days, and the limits of a machine
The Automobile
How the car became the machine that reshaped American life

B

The Birth Control Pill
The oral contraceptive, approved for contraception in 1960

C

Chemotherapy
Poison turned into medicine, from mustard gas to the first cures
The Cotton Gin
The 1793 invention that mechanized cotton — and entrenched slavery

D

Dialysis
The artificial kidney, the God Committee, and the one disease Congress covered
Doppler Radar
Seeing the rotation inside a storm before the funnel reaches the ground

E

Edison's Incandescent Light Bulb
The 1879 Menlo Park demonstration that ended the gaslight era
The Electrification of America
How a nation lit by flame became a nation wired for current, 1880s to 1950s
Ether Anesthesia
October 16, 1846 — the morning surgery stopped meaning agony

F

The Ford Model T
The car — and the assembly line — that put America on wheels
The Fujita Scale
Rating a tornado by what it destroyed, 1971

H

The Human Genome Project
Reading three billion base pairs, 1990 to 2003

I

The Internet
The network that gave everyone a printing press — and remade media

L

LASIK
Laser eye surgery and the arrival of elective consumer medicine

M

The Moving Assembly Line
The 1913 innovation that made mass production — and the modern economy
The MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging and the soft body made visible

N

Nuclear Weapons
The weapon that redefined war, power, and the survival of nations

O

Organ Transplantation
From an identical-twin kidney in 1954 to a permanent scarcity

P

The Pacemaker
The wearable box and the implant that took over the heartbeat
The Power Grid
How isolated stations became a machine the size of a continent

R

Radio
The medium that first brought live voices into the American home

S

Salk Polio Vaccine
The 1955 vaccine that ended summer polio epidemics — and the doctor who refused to patent it
The Skyscraper
The American invention of building up, from the 1880s

T

The Telegraph
How Morse code severed the link between communication and travel
The Telephone
The 1876 invention that let the human voice travel across the wire
Television
The screen that became the center of American life
The Transistor
The tiny 1947 device that made the digital age possible

W

The War of the Currents
Edison's direct current against Westinghouse and Tesla's alternating current, 1886-1893
Weather Forecasting in America
How a nation learned to see the storm coming