Characters.

Before the Blanche House, Lincoln had patented an idea for ships.

The future US president was interested in a navigation problem.

United States

This small model shows an invention that we use without thinking about it

Margaret Knight has mechanized the folding of flat-bottom paper bags.

Six small dots opened up a huge reading space

Louis Braille transforms a handwriting that the fingers can go through.

His garden was hiding a telescope that didn’t need to be seen.

Grote Reber built a large antenna in his home in 1937.

Sequoyah: how he created writing for the Cherokee language

Sequoyah designed a syllabary to write Cherokee. Discover how its signs have helped transmit a language that is already alive.

Janaki Ammal: the botanist who explored the secret of chromosomes

Discover Janaki Ammal, botanist and cytogeneticist: his research on chromosomes illuminates the diversity and transformation of plants.

She was a teacher, but mostly she had to teach at home.

The honors received by Laura Bassi did not erase the restrictions.

This murky liquid seemed bad... it hid extraordinary fibers

Stephanie Kwolek talks about the test she wanted to continue.

In an ordinary fishery, it recognizes a fish that disturbs the past

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer drew attention to a coelacanth in 1938.

He photographed his models before they disappeared in water.

Wilson Bentley has dedicated decades to snow crystals.

His butterflies did not pose alone: the plant told the story

Maria Sibylla Merian represented insects as they were transformed.

This little stain on glass hid the Horsehead

Williamina Fleming spots a nebula in an 1888 photograph.

These algae have illustrated a book... without going under the pencil

Anna Atkins and the Blue Pages of 1843.

This Almanac Hiding an Embarrassing Question for Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Banneker wrote in 1791.

To protect her plates, she changed the way she washed them.

Josephine Cochran and her dishwasher.

His calculations revealed the stars... but the conclusion seemed too strange

Cecilia Payne and her thesis of 1925.

How could a watch tell a ship where it was?

John Harrison and the H4 Trial.

She revealed a heart hidden in the Earth... without descending

Inge Lehmann reads earthquakes differently.

This experiment showed that nature could distinguish its right from its left.

Chien-Shiung Wu puts symmetry to the test.

Her name had disappeared behind a treatment she had made possible.

Alice Ball and a chemistry breakthrough.

She was looking for comets... and ended up getting a royal salary.

Caroline Herschel earns her place in astronomy.

What is the hidden link between energy and the fact that the laws do not change tomorrow?

Emmy Noether connects two fundamental ideas.

He left Hiroshima injured... to return to Nagasaki

Tsutomu Yamaguchi’s journey connects two disasters just a few days away.

This former soldier still linked the 20th century to the American Civil War

In Gettysburg, a monument shows a sitting veteran, far from a battle scene.

He stayed on the cliff to bring down the wounded

The quote from Desmond Doss tells of a succession of rescues under fire in Okinawa.

United Kingdom

A witchcraft law used in 1944: what was Helen Duncan blamed for?

The name of the law gives a misleading impression of the trial.

Former Czechoslovakia 1972

She Survived the Fall of a Plane: What Vesna’s Record Really Means

An extraordinary survival record, often told with one essential detail less.

United States Virginia

Lightning struck him seven times: Roy Sullivan’s incredible case

The record for this ranger is a succession of accidents, not extraordinary power.

Why did Jeanne Baret have to hide her identity at sea?

Jeanne Baret embarks on a maritime world that prohibits her presence as a woman.

Did you know that Hollywood star was also an inventor?

Behind a Hollywood career, Hedy Lamarr also leads a work of invention.

She wants to beat Phileas Fogg... and really goes around the world

Nellie Bly turns the challenge of a novel into a real journey.

She imagined a machine that composed... in the 19th century

Ada Lovelace foresees uses of calculation that exceed numbers.

How did flashing stars help measure the Universe?

Henrietta Swan Leavitt finds a decisive link in stars that change their radiance.

Why was this Mary Anning fossil suspected to be fake?

Mary Anning’s discovery seems at first too strange to be authentic.