The skyscraper – the ultimate symbol of power and wealth around the world. But, incredibly, to invent the skyscraper it took a bird in a cage, the Chicago fire, a chance question from a college student, and the humble horse and wagon.

The aeroplane - it's made our dream of flight a reality, but the moments of genius and invention it took to invent it involved not just birds as inspiration, but a pair of bicycling brothers, a trip to the Moon and back, a pair of frozen eyeballs and two nervous breakdowns.

The car - so much more than getting us from A-B; but the eureka moments it took to invent the car we know today included a Scottish veterinarian's gift for his son, an ambitious wife of an inventor named Benz, thousands of slaughtered animals and a chemist's terrifying experiment with boiling oil.