Photographs by Jo Whaley for TIME; Inventions from left: On Cloudboom Strike LightSpray, Medical Microinstruments Symani Surgical System, Agility Robotics Digit holding Light Bio Firefly Petunias ...

All the best inventions were once in the concept stage, like something as simple as paper towels and something advanced like ...

Germans have invented many things we couldn’t live without anymore. We’ve limited a very long list to our personal “TOP 40 Inventions, Discoveries and Breakthroughs”. We hope not to have missed the ...