Modern Marvels: The Weird and Wonderful World of the Everyday DVD SET

HISTORY™ explores the simple but over looked necessities of everyday life. Why is corn the largest agricultural crop in the world? Why do we wear underwear? Find the answer to these obscure questions plus many more in this unique DVD set. Although life may seem overwhelming with all the high tech gadgets; what would life be without the simplest items we use everyday?

Celebrating ingenuity, invention and imagination brought to life on a grand scale, MODERN MARVELS^® tells the fascinating stories of the doers, dreamers and sometime-schemers who created everyday items, technological breakthroughs and man-made wonders.

Set contains:

CORN — Go beyond the movie-house bag of popcorn to discover the many incredible uses for the largest agricultural crop in the world. From packing material to plasticizers to fuel, corn is not only a tasty vegetable and a cereal grain, it is a vital commodity.

RATS — Get the full story on this skulking vermin. They have contributed incalculably to medical science and have helped save millions of lives but as a spreader of disease, as a denizen of squalor and decay, as a symbol of corruption and dishonesty, you just can’t beat RATS.

STICKY STUFF — Whether you’re leaving a note on the fridge or closing a wound, you’re going to use an adhesive. Take a look at the stickiest of the sticky and see how every aspect of our lives relies on this indispensable technology.

VACUUMS — Learn how giant vacuums clean up after disasters like Hurricane Katrina and underwater vacuums save coral reefs by suctioning up invasive algae. Go beyond your floors and furniture with this fascinating program.

BATTERIES — From the tiniest units to the most massive power sources, learn how they’re made, what they power and what their future holds. Watch a battery powered car go 314 miles per hour and discover, in effect, how lightning is bottled.

MAGNETS — They can be found in computers, cars, phones, VCRs, TVs, vacuum cleaners, washers and dryers, the ubiquitous refrigerator magnet, and even in electric guitars! Magnets’ amazing forces of attraction and repulsion may some day take us to the far reaches of outer space.

UNDERWEAR — From all-over protection to barely-there, go undercover to discover the variety and technology of our remarkable, newfangled undergarments.

WHISKEY — What makes a good whiskey, great? Learn the secret of charcoal filtering at Jack Daniels, admire Jim Beam’s premium bourbons, and discover the art of blending at Canadian Club Whiskey. Then travel to Scotland and Ireland, ancestral home of whiskey.