Thomas Edison's electricity, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Wright Brothers' creaky biplane, H.G. Wells' time machine (OK, that last one hasn't happened yet), but through these world-changing discoveries, our daily lives have been made easier. Flick a switch and light banishes the darkness, pick up a phone and chat away to a distant cousin in Timbuktu, hop on to an airplane and go and have lunch with her the next day. All of these inventions have transformed the world into one huge global village.