Discusses how common household items can become useful inventions, how many inventions were discovered accidentally, and how new products can be patented.

Samuel Todd shows readers some inventions that make his day easier and better, including velcro, a thermos bottle, training wheels, backpacks, and mittens.

Describes ten of the most amazing inventions from a phone that fits in a tooth to a car that doesn't use gasoline.

"Inspiring and empowering, this journey behind the scenes of humanity's greatest creations reveals the surprising way we make something new. What do Thomas Jefferson's ice cream recipe, Coca Cola, and Chanel No. 5 have in common? They all depended on a nineteenth-century African boy who, with a single pinch, solved one of nature's great riddles and gave birth to the multimillion-dollar vanilla industry. Kevin Ashton opens his book with the fascinating...