Robert Ledley News Today

From a bloodmobile to a drinking straw, here are five inventions created by D.C.-area pioneers whose creations are still influential today.

The possibility of precious objects hidden in secret chambers can really ignite the imagination. In the mid-1960s, British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield pondered whether one could detect hidden areas in Egyptian pyramids by capturing cosmic rays that passed through unseen voids.

The first CT scan let doctors see inside a woman's skull and confirm her cystic brain mass. That scanner? It was developed by an eccentric engineer who worked at the Beatles' record company.

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

The invention came from an eccentric British engineer who worked at a company now better known for selling Beatles albums