The surprising stories behind the gadgets we take for granted

Ahead of a new TV series, we look at the past of astonishing brainwaves that have shaped the world – plus some that will shape tomorrow

We are living in a golden age of technology. Uncovering the secrets of  miraculous inventions in a new BBC series, Professor of mathematics Hannah Fry lists 10 gadgets that have altered – or are set to change – the way we live.

Screen queen Hedy Lamarr, of Samson and Delilah fame, never received the recognition she deserved for her incredible mind. During the Second World War, the Allies used just one frequency to guide torpedoes, which the German forces found a way to jam, giving Hitler the upper hand. 

Lamarr, with her composer friend George Antheil, devised a “frequency-hopping” method of switching between airwaves to counteract this, which they patented in 1942 and gifted to the US Navy. It was ignored at the time, but today forms the basis of how we use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

We take access to instant digital maps for granted, but the technology that powers those satellites, GPS, started out as a way for nuclear submariners to keep tabs on their location. I visited the high-security Schriever Space Force Base, in the Colorado prairies, from where the world’s 31 GPS satellites are controlled. We use it now for mundane purposes, to find a nearby pub for instance, but in the early 1970s it was cutting-edge secret military technology.