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Thinking Outside of the Toy Box: 4 Children’s Gizmos That Inspired Scientific Breakthroughs [Slide Show]

Advances in science and technology can launch from unassuming springboards. In 1609 Galileo tweaked a toylike spyglass and pointed it at the moon and Jupiter (not the neighbors) and astronomy took a quantum leap. About 150 years later, Benjamin Franklin reportedly used a kite to experiment with one of the earliest-known electrical capacitors. Continuing that tradition, these researchers prove toys inspire more than child’s play. [More]



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