Engineering is responsible for a host of technological achievements, from indoor plumbing and the network of roads and rails our buses and trains ride on, to high- performance sporting equipment and space observatories. In fact, nearly all the items we rely on and use for hygiene, nutrition, learning, and recreation were made through engineering. Here is one example and how it came to be:

The microwave: New technologies — or modernizations of existing ones — often begin as attempts to solve specific problems. Sometimes they happen unexpectedly. An American engineer named Percy Spencer was researching radars for military use at the end of World War II. While testing a new vacuum tube that emitted a certain frequency of radio waves, he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket melted. Curious about why this had happened, Dr. Spencer tried another experiment, and placed popcorn kernels near the vacuum tube. When the kernels began to pop, the first microwave oven was born — almost completely by accident.

A recent survey of Americans conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) concluded that a 15th century invention — the toothbrush — is the item most people say they could not live without. This proves that sometimes a great invention doesn't have to be as complicated as, say, fiber-optic technology. What all great inventions have in common is that they improve the quality of one's life. And that's precisely the goal of engineering.

What will be the inventions of tomorrow that we will feel we can't live without? Household fuel cell units that allow us to meet our home energy needs? Seat belts with the strength and stretchiness of spider silk? You can rest assured that engineers somewhere are already working on bringing these ideas to reality.

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