It's hard to imagine a time when people didn't rely on their smartphones for everything,

but not so long ago the idea of a touch-sensitive supercomputer in your pocket would have been

ridiculous. Believe it or not, we used to wear fish on our heads to cure headaches and

inhale scabs to fight off diseases. So put that phone away and get ready for some amazing

signs of just how far science has come.

Unless you're listening to this on your phone, obviously.

You're listening. You're listening. You're listening. You're listening.

You're listening. You'd be amazed.

Do you think you'd be able to get out of bed on time every day without an alarm clock?

Nope, neither could I. But before they became readily available in the 1950s, nobody owned them.

So how did anyone get up in the morning? Well, in Britain, there was a whole profession

dedicated to getting people out of bed. These people, called knocker uppers, were common

throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and would walk the streets every morning with

long bamboo sticks. For a few pennies a week, they'd wrap on people's windows at a specific time and wake

them up. One famous knocker-upper even used a pea-shooter. But wait, who woke the knocker-upper's

up? Nobody had to. They slept during the day and naturally got up around 4 p.m. Unfortunately for

them, though, when the alarm clock hits stores in the mid-20th

century, they were out of a job. I don't love the idea of being woken up by a stranger

banging on my window, however. Some of the alternatives today sound even worse. For example,

a miniature machine called clocky deafeningly jolts you awake, then drives off

beeping until you get out of bed, chase it around, and turn it off.

Or if you're grumpy in the mornings like me, punt it out of the window.

...