Inventions

For decades, Chicago police sergeant Louis Vitullo was credited with creating the sexual assault collection kit. But it was actually designed by Martha Goddard.

A soldier's brainwave has the potential to help provide a cheap, easy-to-replicate solution to the global IV fluids crisis, and other army personnel are being encouraged to get creative too.

The cold chain process is a little understood part of our food supply chain. It changed how and what we eat today.

A unique collaboration in south-east Queensland will introduce one-way escape hatches so the marsupials can travel to their breeding spots without doubling back into traffic.   

This steam car was once driven by great inventors. Now, more than 100 years later, this collector has got it moving once again.

This steam car was once driven by great inventors. Now, more than 100 years later, this collector has got it moving once again.

Car enthusiast Chris Sorensen demonstrates 126-year-old one of a kind experimental steam car in action.

Tom Carr had only just moved to his 93-hectare property when an accident left him in a wheelchair. It didn't take the mechanical engineer long to improve the equipment he needed, and soon his Magic Carpet idea was taking flight.

Rani won the NSW EduTech Young Inventor of the Year award for her Aqua Loop invention. 

Watching water go to waste while waiting for the shower to get hot sparked an idea that high school student Rani hopes can help save thousands of litres of the precious resource. It's also caught the attention of Australia's innovators.

There are many inventions that can be traced back to South Australia's regions, including the stump jump plough and the beloved wine storage bladder, the goon sack.

In the 1970s, the pineapple peeler was a staple in many Australian kitchens. But the story behind this Aussie invention shows why life's little pleasures are often the sweetest.

It was once a must-have item in any Australian kitchen, but for its inventor, the humble pineapple peeler of the 1970s shows how we all should cherish life's simple pleasures.

A robot designed to pick mangoes and hopefully ease worker shortage issues, expected to "create ripples through the supply chain", has landed $1 million in venture capital.

In the 1970s, Stanley Clark wanted to stop his little girl's suffering. So, he built the world's first portable blood glucose monitoring machine in a New South Wales suburban backyard. 

A group of inventors operating out of a small workshop in regional Victoria are creating surveillance technology that will help the military by replacing dangerous patrol duties.  

ABC Science wanted to hear from Australia's backyard inventors. In part two of our series, we meet three creative Australians who are taking fitness, safety and chip-eating hand hygiene seriously.

His bold ideas caught the eye of the US president. Now inventor Saul Griffith is making waves at home. He's joined with his local community in a bold project to electrify their suburb and power it with renewables.

His bold ideas caught the eye of the US president. Now inventor Saul Griffith is sparking an energy revolution in Australia, with a goal to create the first all-electric community where households could save $3,000 a year on their energy bills.

ABC Science wanted to hear from Australia's backyard inventors. What we found were creations that range from the practical to the ethereal and the gravity-defying.