Most of the time, new inventions only see the light of day after months and months (if not years!) of careful scientific research, planning, constructing, trial-and-erroring, and tons upon tons of hard mental and physical work. And, once they do see the light, it isn’t guaranteed that they will change the world, make a big impact, or even be remembered years later (hello pagers and beepers!). Yup, even in the case where they are the predecessors of something as great as the smartphones we…