15 Toys, Tools, and Medical Innovations with Surprising Original Uses

It’s the dream of every former little kid who used to get in trouble for taking apart the toaster to solve one of humanity’s biggest problems in a patentable way. Why do you think the dad on Rugrats was always in a back room tinkering with stuff? We all want to live out our days sipping liquor out of coconuts on a private island somewhere and also feel good about it.

As with all children, however, once you set your little baby invention free in the world, you have no control over what it will become. You might have high-minded ideas about curing cancer or solving the climate crisis only for people to spend five minutes with your product and declare, “Hey, this tastes really good, what if we put it on ice cream instead?” After all, there’s nothing more human than the unquenchable urge to ignore package directions (especially in the service of putting stuff on ice cream).