Once Upon a Try

A journey of invention and discovery

In collaboration with

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

and 119 more collections

From the very beginning...

In collaboration with CERN and narrated by Tilda Swinton

The Big Bang in AR

Go back to where it all began in augmented reality

...humans have tried to learn more about the world around us

The very first technology

Handaxes and arrows: humans begin to create

9 ideas that changed the world

The lightbulb moments that enlightened humanity

Exploring inventions

Charts, globes, adventures and discovery

What satellites see

How NASA's data visualisation studio makes the invisible visible

video

Did life come from outer space?

And other explorations by the Indian astronomy hero Govind Swarup

...and invent things that shape our world

Who invented paper?

The strange and ancient story unfolds

Who invented the toilet?

Take a seat and find out

Who invented the toothbrush?

Brush up on the truth

Who invented the internet?

Log onto humanity’s big invention story

Who invented spectacles?

A long-sighted look back in time

Who invented the compass?

Navigate the truth behind the needle

Who really invented football?

Get possession of the facts

Who invented emoji?

The epic rise of the eggplant

Who invented mathematics?

It's all summed up here

Who invented 3D printing?

And will it really trigger a revolution?

Who invented the computer?

Here’s the story, bit by bit

Who invented the sewing machine?

Here’s the story, all sewn up

Who invented the fridge?

Put everything on ice and find out

Who invented zero?

The notable story of nothing

Who invented the battery?

Power through the story of portable energy

How does CRISPR work?

The lowdown on science’s big watchword

Who invented Braille?

The touchy-feely story of a new language

Inventing the new school: the origins of kindergarten

Who invented the espresso machine?

Wake up and smell the coffee

Did you know... Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair and sat on the first one while writing the Declaration of Independence

WHEEL

Inventing the wheel

How getting around got easier

TOOLS

Putting a spanner in the works

How tools (literally) shaped our world

RADIATORS

Heat of the moment

The surprising story of the humble radiator

REMOTE CONTROL

Changing the channel

The story of the remote control

GLASS

The smashing world of glass

A window into 3,500 years of history

VENDING MACHINE

Giving the people what they want

How vending machines influenced culture

PLANES

When humans learnt to fly

Take off with the major pioneers in the history of aviation

BICYCLES

Putting pedal to the metal

Take a spin through the history of the bicycle

TELEPHONE

Hold the phone

Ringing in the changes of communication

RADIO

On air

The story of radio and wireless transmission

UMBRELLAS

Take a rain check

The history of the umbrella

An exclusive documentary with Cai Guo-Qiang

Pushing gunpowder to the limits

One of the most famous contemporary artists in the world experiments with an ancient invention

But the road hasn't always been easy...

editorial feature

Why the cheeseburger almost didn't happen

11 life-changing inventions people never thought would catch on

Did you know... In the 1950s, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes were trying to make 3D plastic wallpaper. It was a complete failure. Today, we know it as Bubble Wrap.

Some people even lost their lives along the way

THE SKY'S NOT THE LIMIT

The aviation pioneer who mysteriously disappeared

Amelia Earhart: the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic

PIONEERS OF MEDICINE

The nurse who gave herself yellow fever to save others

Clara Maass's sacrifice

SCIENCE HEROES

The scientist who carried radioactive radium in her pockets

Marie Curie's remarkable story

AMAZING ADVENTURES

"I am just going outside and may be some time"

The tragic and inspiring stories of Antarctic explorers

Did you know... Marie Curie's notebooks emit such dangerous levels of radioactivity that they still have to be kept in lead-lined boxes today.

...and overlooked figures have often changed the world

WOMEN OF NATURAL HISTORY

5 natural history trailblazers you may not know

Unsung women who paved the way for future generations of scientists

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

The European ideas that actually came from the Middle East

A long history of sharing knowledge across borders

OVERLOOKED PIONEERS

The story of the first computer programmer

How Ada Lovelace traded in poems for coding

OVERLOOKED PIONEERS

Ellen Ochoa's long journey to outer space

Making history aboard Discovery

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Stars of the Muslim Golden Age

Forgotten pioneers of math and science

WOMEN OF NATURAL HISTORY

Dinosaur hunter

The overlooked female palaeontology pioneer, Mary Anning

UNLIKELY FIGURES

How a Parisian magician became a film-making icon

The story of Georges Méliès

UNLIKELY FIGURES

The man who created something in your pocket right now

Self-taught experimenter and inventor of the smart card

OVERLOOKED PIONEERS

A life of firsts

Elsie MacGill: the first female aeronautical engineer

OVERLOOKED PIONEERS

4 African American inventors you should know

The overlooked figures behind things from surgical needles to the microphone in your computer

EDITORIAL FEATURE

It's time to remember the forgotten women scientists of history

Broadly Editor Zing Tsjeng on filling in the gaps of history

Did you know... Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr helped to invent Wifi.

The prejudice-fighting physicist

The inspiring story of Chien-Shiung Wu

Doctor, dancer, NASA astronaut

How Mae C. Jemison overcame the odds to go to space

The forgotten first programmer

How programming pioneer Ada Lovelace was ahead of her time

Rebel with a cause

Sarah E. Goode: the first African-American woman to get a patent

The struggle to find radioactive polonium

How Marie Curie's legacy radiates through history

For millennia, people have looked up and pondered the big questions...

STAR GAZING

Hubble's greatest discoveries

From the Mystic Mountains to the Dragon galaxy

ASTRONOMY

Arabic in the sky

Astronomy a thousand years ago

ASTRONOMY

The sky's the limit

Women in astronomy and space exploration

STAR GAZING

Things are looking up

The amazing history of the telescope

STAR GAZING

Shining a light on the depths of space

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

SPACE EXPLORATION

8 out-of-this-world photos from space

The final frontier on film

ASTRONOMY

The strange magic of Jantar Mantar

India's outdoor observatories

ASTRONOMY

The space craze

How astronomy took over pop culture

SPACE EXPLORATION

Mars as art

Beauty and discovery on the Red Planet

STAR GAZING

How Warren de la Rue captured an eclipse on camera

Combining the telescope and the camera

SPACE EXPLORATION

Photos of Saturn from the Cassini spacecraft

A love letter to the ringed planet

STAR GAZING

How the world's largest radio telescope came to be

Radio astronomy pioneer, Govind Swarup

SPACE EXPLORATION

Looking for life beyond Earth

How NASA is addressing one of the greatest mysteries of all

EXPLORE

NASA's visual universe

See what happens when machine learning meets 127,000 images from the NASA archives

Step inside a space shuttle in VR and

Buckle up for lift off

Learn more about the Discovery space shuttle

...looked inside and examined the tiny building blocks of everything

MICROSCOPES

Life through a lens

A look at microscopes and telescopes

X-RAYS

How we discovered what the world is made of

Popping the hood on life's structures with x-ray crystallography

X-RAYS

Oops! The accidental discovery of x-rays

The mystery of the 'x'

PARTICLE PHYSICS

Why particles matter: electrons, nuclei and the 'strange particle'

The particular history of particle physics

MICROSCOPES

How to look inside a human

From microscopes to microbubbles

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Why can a gecko walk on the ceiling without falling off?

And more secrets from nano- and bio-technology

PARTICLE PHYSICS

A stroll through CERN's secret spaces

The LHC and other machines normally closed to the public

MICROSCOPES

Under the microscope

A glimpse into the world of biomedical imaging

...and looked to each other to make our world a better place

ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES

How one man saved his village

The ingenious method of rainwater harvesting that defeated drought

ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES

Hero of the forest

Almir Suruí: the indigenous chief who's using technology to fight deforestation

DESIGNING A BETTER WORLD

Eye-opening innovations that started with Aha!

Saving lives, saving the planet

TECH WITH A PURPOSE

Six apps that could save your life

Life-changing services brought to life by the mobile phone

ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES

How pine needles could save the world

Harnessing the power of pine needles to create clean energy

ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES

How to create a river of ice

Chewang Norphel's lifelong quest to bring water to Himalayan villages

DESIGNING A BETTER WORLD

The people disrupting big industries

Using design to tackle the world's biggest problems

TECH WITH A PURPOSE

Weird and wonderful ways to improve our air quality

From kites to cars: working together to solve pollution

Did you know... Volvo invented the three point seat belt and then gave free license to all other car manufacturers to use it

What's next?

THE FUTURE OF HOME

Could we live on Mars?

How NASA missions to the Red Planet are addressing one of the greatest mysteries of all

THE FUTURE OF TECH

What will the world look like in 2050?

Herds of edible bugs, smart contact lenses, and more

THE FUTURE OF ROBOTS

Will you be replaced by an android?

The future of human-like robots

THE FUTURE OF FOOD

What will we eat in the future?

From vertical farming to edible food packaging, what is the future of food?

THE FUTURE OF ROBOTS

Will robots take over?

How robots influence our lives and thoughts

THE FUTURE OF HOME

Could we live in deep space?

NASA's new future for humanity in outer space

video

5 British scientists on the tech of tomorrow

Creating superpowers with science

The science of tomorrow: Dr. Gadget

The science of tomorrow: The shapeshifter

The science of tomorrow: The sensational extra sense

The science of tomorrow: Channeling the elements

The science of tomorrow: Extraordinary x-ray

How will you help shape our future?

editorial feature

Inspiration from the next gen

From banana plastic to socks that make you safer: take some tips from the Google Science Fair winners

editorial feature

What does it take to be an inventor?

Two inventors on how they approach their work

Explore Once Upon a Try

Over 400 stories by curators from science and technology museums around the world

Part 1

Extra-ordinary

Extraordinary stories behind ordinary things

Part 2

Making history

Discoveries that have changed the world and saved lives

Part 3

Great minds

The pioneers you should know

Part 4