In 1884 Ottmar Mergenthaler patented the Linotype machine in the United States. With it characters are cast in type metal as a complete line rather than as individual characters.

In the year 2000, Bill Clinton introduced a preview of the Human Genome Project and promised rapid progress for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.

In the eighteenth century, cheap raw materials from the Americas and other emerging markets drove European world trade. The transatlantic triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America was established.

The discovery of the nuclear chain reaction enabled the construction of atomic bombs and nuclear power plants—something never intended by the scientists.