Yet when she invented Kevlar, Stephanie Kwolek, who has died aged 90, had no idea her invention would be credited with saving thousands of lives and would become quietly ubiquitous in modern life.
Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, provided few directions for how to select winners, except that the prize committees should reward those who "have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind".
Visas can be arranged through Footloose Sea kayaking was invented in Greenland by Inuit hunters as a means of pursuing seals and whales, but today it is growing in popularity among holidaymakers keen to get up close to the majestic icebergs around the coast.
My take on possibly the easiest mixed drink ever invented (after the gin tonic, of course), the Spanish tinto de verano, a simpler, less alcoholic version of sangria that is easier to make, and less alcoholic, so it's perfect that's perfect for a long afternoon in the garden.
Because, in a world in which the male body is currently being celebrated in so many forms – guys are now being applauded for "Dad Bod" (which gay men have long known as "bears") – showing a little leg shouldn't get anyone admonished from on the street, especially when it's not as though I invented short-shorts.
The play – based on the story of the chemist Clara Immerwahr, who killed herself after the poison gas invented by her husband, Fritz Haber, was used for mass murder in the first world war – is the most ambitious yet by a director famous for daring productions.
As Bartle explains, "By the time the games companies got interested in making mutiplayer online games in the late 90s, there were 100 MUD experienced designers for every one who was experienced in one of the other multi-user games that had been invented, because it was all free".
Star Wars lightsabers finally invented Killer robots in film – in pictures This article was amended on 6 August, to correctly identify Aliens as the film that featured power-loaders.
During rehearsals, the cast invented The Really Sound Party, a fictional political party which inspired McCarthy to enter politics for real.
She is 45m tall, winged, made of aluminium, and if you see her face close up – impossible unless you climb inside her, which I've done – she looks as if the Latin word misericordia (compassion) was invented for her.
The craft of the agave harvest, still done entirely by hand, has remained virtually unchanged since around 1600 when tequila was first invented by the Spanish conquistadors.
