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Five times Scots have been awesome at problem solving

28 March 2017

1. Turning your thinking around

In episode 4 of Robot Wars’s latest series, Team Wyrm find themselves in a bit of a jam.

A last-minute repair turns forwards into backwards, but the lads from Falkirk come up with a novel solution.

• Robot Wars: When your killer robot thinks forward is backwards, you have to think fast

2. Tikka tinkering

According to urban legend, chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow in the 1960s when a diner complained his food was too dry.

The chef’s idea? Combine pieces of chicken tikka with a tin of a condensed tomato soup.

3. Sore bottom biking solution

In 1888, John Boyd Dunlop saw his son wincing with pain as he pedalled along a cobbled street on solid wheels.

An idea popped into his head: what if the wheels were surrounded by air-filled rubber?

4. The steam dream

James Watt didn’t invent the steam engine.

But in 1764 he starting modifying it so that much less steam escaped.

This was a dramatically more efficient way of producing power and drove the industrial revolution forward.

5. Seeing enemies in the dark

Robert Watson Watt was instrumental in developing a world-changing technology nearly 200 years later during World War Two.

His idea? Detecting planes in the sky by bouncing radio waves off them — radar.

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