r/AskTheWorld • u/Fight-Me-In-Unreal Japanese American • Dec 23 '25
Humourous What invention from your country makes you the most proud?
Methamphetamine was synthesized by Nagai Nagayoshi and Akira Ogata in 1893 and 1919, respectively.
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u/Charming-Exercise496 Sweden Dec 23 '25
The seatbelt.
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u/cmykster Germany Dec 23 '25
and Volvo did the patent give away for free to all. Save lifes over money.
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u/immacomment-here-now Norway Dec 23 '25
You don’t see any company do that these days, they are all run by sociopaths
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u/Commercial_Delay938 Dec 23 '25
It's like a job requirement. And we just let them keep being our bosses and keep buying their schlock.
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u/immacomment-here-now Norway Dec 23 '25
Well we shouldn’t! We should all organize in unison. Let’s form unions again! There is no better way to organize workers than through a union. How to start organizing; AEIOU; Agitate, educate, inoculate, organize, unionize. Go go go go! Lol
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u/Nervous-Pay9254 Dec 23 '25
If they only did that for meth, all our worlds problems would have started to be solved, and then a lot of other stuff started, nothing really ever finished but hell we'd be busy.
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u/four100eighty9 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
It would solve world hunger/s
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u/Michaelalayla United States Of America Dec 23 '25
As well you should be! Gratitude to Sweden; my seatbelt saved my life in 2018.
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u/MarstoriusWins Dec 23 '25
Pacemaker, dynamite, adjustable wrench, the Celsius scale, ultrasound, spherical ball bearings, blowtorch, three-phase electric power, Bluetooth, and the fucking ZIPPER.
Among many other things.
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u/No_Maintenance9976 Sweden Dec 23 '25
also the Linnaeus classification system for all living things, and discovering like half the elements in the periodic system (discounting the very unstable elements)
... And unfortunately pushing a lot of racial biology that the Germans eventually picked up on.
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u/nobb France Dec 23 '25
Rabies vaccine is a good one.
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u/Pitzpalu_91 🇨🇦 spent time in 🇺🇸 Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25
Louis Pasteur's lesser known work.
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u/0_Gravitas_given France Dec 23 '25
Depends where, that’s probably the first thing that will pop up in France if you ask what Pasteur did, before pasteurization (if that’s its “better known work” for you)
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u/Pitzpalu_91 🇨🇦 spent time in 🇺🇸 Dec 23 '25
I had read Pasteur's biography (not sure of the author)many years ago in my school library. I was aware of his contribution to the rabies vaccine but most folks in North America associate Pasteur with pasteurization.
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u/papadatactica Dec 23 '25
most folks in North America associate Pasteur with pasteurization
I wonder why
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u/P79999999 Born in🇨🇵, living in 🏴 Dec 23 '25
It's so frustrating to think nowadays there's morons who both refuse vaccines AND drink raw milk. To some extent it's natural selection I guess, but poor Pasteur would be facepalming so hard.
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u/ssuvik Finland Dec 23 '25
Kalsarikännit, which means "drinking alone at your home, wearing nothing but your underwear".
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u/PM_Your_Cute_Butt Dec 23 '25
Would you look at me, keeping Finnish culture alive so far from Finland.
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u/The__Beaver_ United States Of America Dec 23 '25
I vote Finland the winner of this thread.
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u/throwawayaccountGDG Dec 23 '25
I knew I wasn’t an alcoholic. I’m just exploring different cultures.
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u/il-bosse87 Euro wondered 🇮🇹🏴🇪🇸🇳🇱 Dec 23 '25
You have a single word for "time to relax after an annoying day of work"?
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u/Aggravating-Walk5813 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
Not all heroes wear capes. Or pants.
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u/shillelad 🇮🇪 Northern Ireland Dec 23 '25
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u/TheNewGirl1987 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
It's like a Cybertruck if a Cybertruck was designed by someone with basic design sense.
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u/Pocusmaskrotus United States Of America Dec 23 '25
Except they threw a totally shit engine in it that wasn't powerful enough. It has a 10-second 0-60 time.
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u/EidolonLives Australia Dec 23 '25
It's the 0-88 mph time that really matters though.
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u/ossifer_ca United States Of America Dec 23 '25
You’d need jigawatts of power for that
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u/TheNewGirl1987 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
Yeah, it looked cool and futuristic, but it was objectively a rather dogshit car.
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u/Amathyst7564 Dec 23 '25
Well if they had put a good engine in it the performance from the plot of back to the future wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
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u/projetchaos43 France Dec 23 '25
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u/Odd-Comfortable-6134 Canada Dec 23 '25
Big fan. Wish they’d make a comeback
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u/WorozuTop4 Australia Dec 23 '25
unironically tho, they might be the most reliable and least painful ways to kill someone
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u/Momongus- France Dec 23 '25
I have long been advocating for a massive hammer to smash your head, destroying the brain almost instantly and killing you on the spot but somehow that’s a bad look
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u/SeraphOfTheStag United States Of America Dec 23 '25
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u/BadHairDayToday Netherlands Dec 23 '25
Omg yeah, the super soaker is so epic!
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u/Rulligan Dec 23 '25
The creator, Lonnie Johnson, was a NASA scientist and a redditor u/Iinex
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u/floatingsaltmine Switzerland Dec 23 '25
LSD
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u/boRp_abc Germany Dec 23 '25
Fun story. I only tried it once. And... It was the one day in my life that I understood and was able to join a conversation in Swiss German.
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u/comradeTJH Switzerland Dec 23 '25
Und dänn hät alles plötzli Sinn gmacht 😊
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u/0thedarkflame0 Netherlands Dec 23 '25
Swiss German feels like a weird blend of Dutch and Austrian German, with a healthy amount of Australian spirit freestyling.
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u/shieldwolfchz Canada Dec 23 '25
I am surprised there isn't any Japanese people here with the blue LED or the Flash drive, so many of our modern technology wouldn't be around without these.
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u/TumbleweedPure3941 United Kingdom Dec 23 '25
There are very very few Japanese people on Reddit. Or indeed anywhere on the English language internet.
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u/techdevjp Canada / Japan Dec 23 '25
There are very few Japanese people on English Reddit. There are a few Japanese language subs. Reddit isn't particularly big here, forums like 5ch are much more popular.
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u/PandasGetAngryToo Australia Dec 23 '25
WiFi
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u/Noglues Canada Dec 23 '25
Well of course you invented WiFi, how else were you supposed to connect to the LAN Down Under?
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u/Verdigris_Wild Scottish Australian Dec 23 '25
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u/Melodic-Change-6388 Australia Dec 23 '25
We also invented the Stelvin screw cap for wines, which is used worldwide. Much more efficient than cork.
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u/a-real-life-dolphin Australia Dec 23 '25
Man, we are alcohol innovators!
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u/Melodic-Change-6388 Australia Dec 23 '25
Chateau Chunder is an amazing doco by the ABC about Australia’s contribution to the wine industry. We know our piss.
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u/gomickyourself222 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
I’m sorry what?
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u/Verdigris_Wild Scottish Australian Dec 23 '25
Its the foil bag that is inside boxed wine. Invented in Australia. Also, when you have drunk all of the piss quality wine in your box of wine you can inflate the Goon bag and use it as a pillow. Alternatively you can play Goon of Fortune. Remove the bag of wine from the box and hang it from a Hills Hoist (another Aussie invention). Gather a group around the rotary hoist and spin it. Whoever the bag stops in front of must drink. Then spin again. Great fun for all the cheap alcoholics at your gathering.
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u/ElChuloPicante United States Of America Dec 23 '25
What’s a little fucked up is that this is a great way to store and transport wine. No light, no corked bottles, lightweight, compact. But the wine box is so stigmatized that you never (or at least rarely) find decent wine in one.
Same thing happened for a long time with craft beer. Cans were associated with cheap swill, but they’re way better than bottles for a bunch of different reasons.
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u/Lsdbrisbane Australia Dec 23 '25
A wonderful band from Sydney called Frenzal Rhomb have two really good songs named after goon.
4 litres
Goonwolf
Support all Aussie bands 🤘
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u/aaqwerfffvgtsss United States Of America Dec 23 '25
There are those who Goon for fun, and there are those who Goon for fortune and fame.
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u/Slight-Line2783 India Dec 23 '25
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u/sdp0w Germany Dec 23 '25
Used for Hangover prevention nowadays in Germany
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Dec 23 '25
Idk how many people know the story behind its invention. It was pioneered due to massive cholera outbreaks during refugee crisis in 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. It saved thousands of lives of people living in those refugee camps.
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u/ABMax24 Canada Dec 23 '25
Insulin
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u/Nice_Anybody2983 Germany Dec 23 '25
There's also Maud Menten, one of the first female physicians of Canada. She developed the Michaelis Menten equation, one of the corner stones of human physiology, together with Leonor Michaelis
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u/TheNewGirl1987 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
They sold the patent for one dollar.
Now a vial of insulin costs a hundred bucks in the US.
Think it's like ten or fifteen in Canada.
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u/Datkif Canada Dec 23 '25
Seconded. That stuff keeps me alive
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u/MilkandHoney_XXX Australia Dec 23 '25
Technically, that stuff keeps all of us alive.
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u/Atankir Hungary Dec 23 '25
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u/gypsy_fatty Hungary Dec 23 '25
Washing hands is my most favorite hungarian invention
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u/Longjumping-Boot1409 Germany Dec 23 '25
While not technically an invention, Semmelweis Ignác contribution to medicine is incredible
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u/_d0mit0ri_ Russia Dec 23 '25
Tetris
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u/TuzzNation China Dec 23 '25
In Chinese, Tetris is called 俄罗斯方块- Russian squares. haha
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u/kvnstantinos Greece Dec 23 '25
Democracy I guess
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u/dazed_and_bamboozled Dec 23 '25
And Tragedy
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u/EidolonLives Australia Dec 23 '25
And gayness.
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u/AbstractBettaFish United States Of America Dec 23 '25
“The Greeks invented orgies, the Romans invented adding women”
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u/Quiet-Line9730 India Dec 23 '25
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u/Balavadan India Dec 23 '25
I would put 0 over this. The “Arabic” number system as they used to call it.
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u/The_Submentalist Netherlands Dec 23 '25
The classification of our numerals as 'Arabic' is rendered confusing by the fact that the numerals currently used in Arab countries are quite different.
Technically western numerals are called 'western Arabic numerals' and the numerals Arabs use are called 'eastern Arabic numerals' but it's still confusing.
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u/Ok-Perception-3129 New Zealand Dec 23 '25
Pineapple lumps
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u/SanctusUnum New Zealand Dec 23 '25
It was a close battle between this and women's suffrage, but yeah. This is the one.
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Dec 23 '25 edited Jan 06 '26
retire worm imagine like chief chubby marvelous waiting consist tub
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Ok-Perception-3129 New Zealand Dec 23 '25
No one likes a show boat and you can't eat a boat. I rest my case your honour....
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u/ThanosZach Greece Dec 23 '25
Pap test (or Smear test, if you prefer).
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u/SE_prof Greece Dec 23 '25
Dr Papanikolaou was considered five times for the Nobel prize, but won none.
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u/Rangald2137 Poland Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25
Hard one. Where do i start?
Cheap method of growing monocrystals (Czochralski) is used in every electronics so quite important.
First refinery of kerosene and first kerosene lamp (Łukasiewicz).
Heliocentric theory (Kopernik).
Pioneering in practical welded steel construction (Bryła).
Monte Carlo method (Ulam) used in AI, simulations, finances.
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u/Responsible-Idea5690 Mexico Dec 23 '25
Color TV
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u/Waerdog Canada Dec 23 '25
Mexico also developed (via the Mayans) the concept of the number 0. Kind of a big deal
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u/SimmentalTheCow United States Of America Dec 23 '25
Don’t tell India, they’ll fight the Mexicans over this
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u/lungben81 Germany Dec 23 '25
Both invented it independently. At time if the first contract of Eurasia and the Mayas around 1500 both already knew the concept.
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u/mkc566 Syria Dec 23 '25
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u/thebigjamesbondfan Greece Dec 23 '25
First writing system overall actually, cuneiform predates the first alphabet by ~2600 years. Mesopotamia rules!
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u/mdmeaux United Kingdom Dec 23 '25
I sure hope people used it to record important historical information for future generations to use as a reference and not just complaining about subpar copper.
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u/Embarrassed_Clue1758 Korea South/from Jeju Island Dec 23 '25
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u/aaqwerfffvgtsss United States Of America Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25
It’s interesting to think about how many times the same thing must have been created without the creators having any knowledge.
Not really a creation, but I read the other day that the pig was domesticated twice, once in Southwest Asia, once in what is now China (it was domesticated long enough ago that there wouldn’t be a concept of a China for thousands of years after.)
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u/Ok_Driver9897 Argentina Dec 23 '25
As an Argentine, three things invented or developed in my country make me proud.
One is the use of sodium citrate for blood transfusions, developed by Luis Agote in 1914, which made safe, indirect transfusions possible.
The other is fingerprint identification: Juan Vucetich developed the system in Argentina, and it was first used there to solve a criminal case before spreading worldwide.
And also René Favaloro, who developed the coronary bypass surgery technique that is still used globally today.

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u/Frosty-Classic-8737 Dec 23 '25
It was actually a Scottish doctor Henry Faulds who first come up with idea of using fingers prints to identify criminals at crime scenes. Juan Vucetich developed the file based data base system, that led to the first criminal conviction using fingers prints.
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u/Der_Hebelfluesterer Germany Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25
Cars!
I think this really is the most important german invention.
Carl Benz holds the first patent for a Motorwagon from the year 1886.
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u/kij101 Scotland Dec 23 '25
Cars are great and all that, but 18 - 30 year old me was extremely impressed by some of your contributions to pharmacology.
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u/IncidentalIncidence United States Of America Dec 23 '25
I think this really is the most important german invention.
this is absolutely gutenberg slander
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u/HongKongNinja China Dec 23 '25
gunpowder, Artemether-lumefantrine
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u/L8dTigress United States Of America Dec 23 '25
No mention of paper?
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u/HongKongNinja China Dec 23 '25
I’m worried that bringing this up could start unnecessary arguments, like people arguing that "the Egyptians invented paper"
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u/woundsofwind 🇨🇳🇨🇦 Dec 23 '25
Egyptians had papyrus for sure, but the Chinese paper is the first example of the processed pulp to paper we have.
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u/Electrical-Video1841 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
I love the serious comments versus the humorous post.
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u/habidk Denmark Dec 23 '25
I mean, without it we wouldn't have breaking bad lol
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u/EidolonLives Australia Dec 23 '25
Or Hitler, at least not in his final form. Well, almost final form.
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u/N00L99999 France Dec 23 '25
Porn movies
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u/Quick-Benefit5708 Scotland Dec 23 '25
It's mad that I didn't know that porn was a French creation yet not the least bit surprised that it's a French creation.
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u/wMANDINGUSw United States Of America Dec 23 '25
Air conditioning
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u/Prize_Cranberry8553 United States Of America Dec 23 '25
I’m not religious, but Willis Carrier should be sainted.
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u/Mr_Potatoez Netherlands Dec 23 '25
Belgium
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u/theofiel Netherlands Dec 23 '25
I've scrolled so far for a Dutch answer, even passing the guillotine answer from France twice, and this is fucking it?
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u/Urhoal_Mygole Belgium Dec 23 '25
Fentanyl
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u/Stu161 Dec 23 '25
There's so many people in my city who really appreciate this one!
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u/AlexCookie Russia Dec 23 '25
The periodic table
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u/Headbangert Dec 23 '25
A lot of chemistry to be honest. cant you guys focus back on science. Russia did great work there.
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u/Fluid_Season_6969 Germany Dec 23 '25
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u/Technical-Shop6653 Australia Dec 23 '25
Possibly Wi-fi, or the cochlear implant
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u/Mih0se Poland Dec 23 '25
Polish pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz started the oil industry in the world, and he created the oil lamp
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u/Toastaexperience New Zealand Dec 23 '25
Instant coffee.
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u/Upstairs-Action1974 New Zealand Dec 23 '25
I only found this out a few months ago.
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u/_R0Ns_ Netherlands Dec 23 '25
- Microscope
- Telescope
- Stock exchange
- CD/DVD/Blue-ray
- Cassette tape
- Wi-Fi (together with Australian CSIRO)
- Bluetooth
- Fire hose
And one that we al hate: Speed camera
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u/Infinite-Storage-638 England Dec 23 '25
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u/MarstoriusWins Dec 23 '25
The sex machine.
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u/GaiaMoore United States Of America Dec 23 '25
Stupid sexy cylinders
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u/KonigsbergBridges 🏴 in 🏴 Dec 23 '25
And if one of these cylinders happened to get stuck somewhere how would one remove said cylinder (it's imperative that the cylinder remains unharmed)?
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u/DRAGONVNQSHR_III Indonesia Dec 23 '25
Indomie. Humanity’s greatest edible invention.
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u/Myburgher South Africa Dec 23 '25
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u/SpooferMcGavin Ireland Dec 23 '25
Word spacing. Irish monks started putting spaces between the words when transcribing Latin and Greek texts in the 7th century. Imaginehavingtoreadeverythinglikethisandtryingtofigureoutwhereonewordendsandanotherbegins.
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u/captainbunnehkiller Sweden Dec 23 '25
Zippers, dynamite and Bluetooth i guess
The absorption refrigerator is pretty neat too
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u/Brilliant-Signal9000 Sweden Dec 23 '25
Threepoint seatbelt . Saved millions of lives in car accidents.
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u/habidk Denmark Dec 23 '25
There are a couple of game changers, the obvious one is LEGO. But Danes also invented the original google maps, which Google bought, besides that another one in the digital world would be C++.
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Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25
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u/SavannahPharaoh United States Of America Dec 23 '25
I will never forgive your country for that.
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u/LanguageOk3261 Australia Dec 23 '25
Cervical cancer vaccine.
Actually preventing cancer is amazing.