The Story of Innovation: How Yesterday's Discoveries Lead to Tomorrow's Breakthroughs

great book

This is a great informational resource for anyone that has at least a few minutes to spare. National Geographic is known to make publish interesting books with great photographs and this is no exception. The 300 page book is structured in 5 parts:1 - Physical Science2-Life Science3-Medicine4-Planetary Science5-TechnologyEven if a reader has only a few minutes to spare at one time, he/she can learn quite a few interesting things. What I especially like is that they learn about the Why and How. Why was this technological advancement needed, including some brief history in some cases, as well as how it happened. Take the GPS for example. It even mentions the 1980s Korean flight that got shot by the Soviets and the arguments focused on the location. The book describes the current GPS Satellite network, etc. And this is found on just 2 pages of this book.

This coffee table book from National Geographic is a terrific overview of the history and future of science and technology. It's sectioned into physical science, life science, medicine, planetary science/astronomy, and technology. The paper is luxurious to the touch and the photos and drawings are terrific. These pages are full of eye candy.Each section includes an overview of the particular innovation covered and then developments are listed chronologically. There are excellent descriptions of how basic ideas are developed into bigger and better things; it presents a fascinating journey from origin to future possibilities for each innovation. The author does imply certain things that aren't absolute truths yet, but overall it's a pretty fantastic book. It's the kind of book to leave out for kids to consult. They'll learn things without even knowing it.The information is given in easy-to-swallow chunks but by no means are those chunks light and simple - depending on the subject, I found some concepts strained my brain, but in a good way. As a writer, I'm always looking for books like this - books that will give me basic information on various subjects - historical, current, or future - that come up in my plots, and point me in the right direction if I need more information.All in all, an excellent choice. I think it would make a fantastic gift for a family, or for science fans of nearly any stripe.

This book is ok, but I was hoping for something a little different. First, I had envisioned that this would be a standard coffee table book- something that you can flip through and read sections at random. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Each individual topic is only a half or full page, but the topics are grouped into larger sections, and each topic refers back to the ones before it. So, to fully understand what you're reading, you need to read the entire large section in order. Second, I found that some of the topics were glossed over so much that they were too vague to understand the discovery or innovation being described. The book will say that someone did experiment X and as a result discovered some interesting fact, but often there is no attempt to describe how the results of the experiment led the scientist to form their conclusions.The good aspects of the book are that it covers a wide array of topics (physical science, life sciences, medicine, planetary science & astronomy, and technology) and that the images are gorgeous and often helpful in understanding the text.

Since my "day job" revolves around innovation, I thought I'd enjoy The Story of Innovation because it would illuminate factors about my work. But here's where the always pliable definition of "innovation" introduces a new perspective. The Story of Innovation isn't about corporate innovation (idea generation, brainstorming, open innovation, etc). It is about how small discoveries in ancient history form the basis for technology marvels that we have today. Yes it is "innovation" but examined over a long period of time, charting the evolution and advancement of knowledge.The book is a classic National Geographic publication, which means plenty of beautiful images and photos and lots of factoids. If you are interested in seeing how technology in a range of industries or disciplines unfold, this book is for you. If, like me you were interested in the application of innovation in corporate settings, this isn't for you. A good and beautiful book regardless.

I love large format, "coffee table" books and National Geographic's The Story of Innovation is no exception. This book offers a great overview of inventions, innovations, and scientific discoveries that continue to shape our modern world.The range of topics covered in this book is fantastic, from the discovery of electrons to the formation of the periodic table, from the discovery of fossils in rock formations to genetics. There's a little bit of everything in the pages of this book! Each of the pages inside is laid out with beautiful, crisp pictures and a paragraph or two containing facts and figures to pique your interest.I even love that Nat Geo chose Destin Sandlin, one of my favorite online personalities, to write the foreword to this book.If you enjoy reading about science in an approachable way and love the amazing photography National Geographic is known for then definitely check this book out! Recommended!

Contents seem to be lacking details,although so much space wasted.So also, the fonts used are not readable with ease. Why waste so much space and strain eyes of children with small fonts ?

die Geschichte der Innovation. Sehr inspirierend und ich konnte viel daraus lernen. Die Bilder sind auch toll. Es ist ein Muss in Ihrem Regal

Awasome bookJust go for it.