That phone in your hand?

It's more powerful than all the computers that put a man on the moon combined.

You can print a house.

That old GPS in your car will be your future driver.

But how did we end up here?

Let's get started.

And it's needed well enough to find a few mile an hour.

My name is Gary Schlaz.

I'm the biggest guy in the world.

I want to see my students stay here.

There's one more thing.

It wasn't by accident.

Well, sometimes it was.

It was also hard work and teamwork and competition.

And lots of incredibly surprising moments.

I'm Stephen Johnson.

I write about the history of ideas and innovation.

My whole life, I've been fascinated by the scientists,

engineers and ordinary people whose ideas have changed our world for the better.

Or sometimes for the worse.

On Wondering's new series, American Innovations,

we'll tell you the stories behind DNA and the mapping of the human genome,

...