Geologists from the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) are responsible for deciding how the Earth’s history should be categorized into epochs and eras based on geological deposition in the earth.
The discovery of the nuclear chain reaction enabled the construction of atomic bombs and nuclear power plants—something never intended by the scientists.
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station was built between 1918 and 1924 under the supervision of Oskar von Miller, a Bavarian engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum.
The large-scale testing of the atomic bomb in 1950 has left radioactive elements that could send strong, traceable chemical signals into our atmosphere for millennia.
In the 1980s, the findings of Paul Crutzen and his team were used as the basis for the Montreal Protocol’s ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), identified as the primary cause for the hole in the ozone layer.
Steam power became the energy source for many machines and vehicles, making it cheaper and easier to produce commodities in large amounts.
The discovery of the x-ray in 1895 marks the start of medical imagery for diagnostic purposes. The ability to look inside a living body revolutionized the way we look at medicine and human anatomy.
In the early twentieth century, most ships were powered by coal and steam. The first diesel engine was built by Rudolf Diesel in 1897. It became part of almost all types of ships and a driving force of globalization.
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 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.
