Includes index. Includes bibliographical references: p. [360]-366. "Almost every appliance and innovation we take for granted in twenty-first-century life has come from technologies developed as a result of war. The list is huge and wide-ranging, touching on inventions and procedures of enormous diversity, from microwave ovens to television and radio; contact lenses to computers; the Internet to open-heart surgery. By considering seven of the most important developments in the history of technology and science, Michael White reveals how so much of the modern technological world has come to us through the silver-lining in the black cloud of war."--BOOK JACKET.