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Architect of the first pyramid and the earliest named physician in history.

Standardised papermaking, the substrate of recorded civilisation.

Built the first seismoscope and mapped 2,500 stars.

Built an astronomical clock tower with the first known escapement chain drive.

Described the magnetic compass and deduced geological deep time.

Commissioned Hangul, the alphabet that made Korea literate.

Industrialised the word and detonated the modern world.

Proved that art and science are one act of looking.

Built over 300 structures including the Selimiye Mosque; Ottoman master architect.

Electricity, bifocals, and the American public sphere.

The four-stroke engine that moved the 20th century.

Invented dynamite, then endowed the prizes to redeem the legacy.

Built and patented the first practical automobile.

1,093 patents and the industrial research laboratory itself.

Alternating current, induction motors and radio principles.

Scientific management — the origin of every productivity metric and its discontents.

The moving assembly line and the five-dollar day created mass consumer industry.

Flew the first publicly witnessed powered aircraft in Europe.

Made radio a transatlantic reality.

Built the first programmable digital computer, the Z3, in 1941.

Designed the Toyota Production System — lean manufacturing worldwide.

His cube became a global object lesson in group theory.

Wrote the web and gave it away for nothing.