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Overview

Where do inventors get their ideas? Are they inevitable, or dependent on the genius of the inventor?

Inventions can have unintended consequences. We might think that an invention has a straightforward application, but in fact it can have far-reaching effects on society and the world. In this article we’ll discuss how flash photography led to social legislation in New York City, as well as other inventions that changed the world and why they did so.

Big Idea #1: From aromatic flower to hovering hummingbird: Our world is more connected than you might think.

Evolutionary biology is a good example of how living organisms are interconnected. If one organism changes, it may affect other species in an evolutionary process called coevolution. Usually evolution is seen as a competitive process, where one species survives at the expense of another less fit species; however, when they coevolve there’s a symbiotic relationship between them where each benefits the other and vice versa.

During the Cretaceous period, 145 million years ago, flowers evolved scents and colors to signal pollen to insects. Over time, those insect bodies changed so they could better extract that pollen from the plant. In doing so, they were able to pollinate the plants and make them produce nectar for energy-rich food.

Hummingbirds are attracted to the nectar of flowers, and they help pollinate them. To do so, hummingbirds had to develop a way to hover in mid-air while drinking from flowers. This process took millions of years, but eventually their wings evolved into a shape that allowed them to hover for long periods of time.

This is how the coevolution chain proceeded: from colorful flowers to hummingbirds, which pollinate those flowers.

In the past, no one could have predicted how evolution and coevolution would connect all life on Earth. Today, we know a lot more about it thanks to better research.

Big Idea #2: Long-zoom history sees historical change from a broader perspective, making concrete connections.

Human history is rarely linear. It’s more like a jagged line, with lots of ups and downs. Historians look at multiple events to get the bigger picture when they study history.

If we focus only on the fact that Google’s search engine is free, we might miss other consequences of its influence. If we expand our focus to look at the company’s larger societal effects, however, we see another picture.

Google has changed the way we look for information. It has made paid ads in newspapers obsolete, and that’s a good thing because it gives us more control over our searches.

If we take the long view, we can see how one small change in a company’s business model affects other industries.

But what if this is just coincidence? Perhaps a butterfly’s wing flapping can lead to something as significant as a hurricane.

Although the butterfly effect is similar to long-zoom history, it differs in that we can’t identify all of the connections between events. For example, if you tap your foot, you could say that this causes an earthquake in China because there are many links between them. However, with a long-zoom view of an event like the evolution of hummingbird’s wing, we can concretely plot out these connections and know for sure that they exist.

Big Idea #3: Innovations can inspire other innovations often in wonderful, unexpected ways.

Some innovations are related to each other in unexpected ways. For example, fish and family planning might not seem connected on the surface, but they’re linked in a wonderful way.

A naturalist named Clarence Birdseye made a startling discovery while ice fishing with the Inuits in Labrador. His innovation would change how we eat forever.