Is it usefulness, accidental genius, or sheer dumb luck that produces inventions? Well, after this episode, we at least know for sure what Batman's answer would be. As for the rest of it, you'll just have to listen along while we dive into one of Ceri's dream topics: Inventions!

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[This or That]

Pacemaker

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3232561/

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/11/from-viagra-to-valium-the-drugs-that-were-discovered-by-accident

Snow globe

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-25298507

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-an-experiment-to-amplify-light-in-hospital-operating-rooms-led-to-the-accidental-invention-of-the-snow-globe-180985742/

Stethoscope 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1570491/

https://www.thoughtco.com/rene-laenecc-stethoscope-1991647

[The Scientific Definition]

Pigeon Vest

https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/pigeons-bras-go-war

Bat Bomb

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/1090bats/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-almost-perfect-world-war-ii-plot-to-bomb-japan-with-bats

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-weird-tech-the-bat-bombs-of-world-war-ii/237267/

Chicken Eyeglasses

https://gizmodo.com/thousands-of-chickens-once-wore-glasses-to-stop-them-ki-1700343874

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1989/11/27/entrepreneur-wants-a-lens-in-every/

https://extension.psu.edu/poultry-cannibalism-prevention-and-treatment

https://patents.google.com/patent/US730918

Experiment (patent in category “Boats to ascend rivers”)

https://books.google.com/books?id=K1YdAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/nautarch/nwl/lake-champlain-projects/hoofbeats-over-the-water-ina-research-on-horse-powered-ferryboats/

https://books.google.com/books?id=z0Avt3ruFx0C&pg=PA294#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.uspto.gov/blog/the-search-for-lost-x

[Ask the Science Couch]

“Ahead of their time” inventions (Undersea cables, Antikythera mechanism, electric cars) 

https://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/historyculture/french-transatlantic-cable.htm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w

https://www.youtube.com/@clickspring

https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-early-electric-cars

Patreon bonus: Patent law and whether you can apply without a prototype

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/100

https://www.legal.uillinois.edu/services/legal_guidance/inventions_and_patents

https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2109.html

https://improbable.com/2014/02/21/the-blonsky-centrifugal-birthing-device-in-dublin/

[Butt One More Thing]

John Henry Kellog’s vibratory dining chair for bowel movements

https://www.museumofquackery.com/devices/k-chair.htm

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-nutrition-history-quackery/enigmatic-dr-kellogg