There are many examples of inventions that were way ahead of their time. So much so that some would not come into use for another thousand years and some would only come into general use almost 100 years after they were designed.

The landscape after Pinatubo's eruption may give a glimpse of what early humans experienced.

The first sign that something had gone terribly wrong was a deep rumbling roar. Hours later the choking ash arrived, falling like snow in a relentless storm that raged for over two weeks. Despite being more than 2000 kilometres from the eruption, hominins living as far away as eastern India would have felt Toba's fury.

Being a scientist, doctor or a researcher takes dedication and a sometimes a thirst for knowledge…at any price. These ten researchers took the ultimate challenge and tested their theories on themselves, sometimes with fatal results. Here are the top 10 researchers who used themselves as lab rats.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if our life cycles were reversed, that is if we were born old and died young?

In 1637 Rene Descartes, the French mathematician and philosopher, predicted that it would never be possible to make a machine that thinks as humans do.

One of the best aspects of science has always been its readiness to admit when it got something wrong.

Do you think Russia and the USA are enemies? Check this out!

Nanotechnology

Let's be clear here: nanotechnology is nothing more than a means to an end. Programming some sort of self-replicating von Neumann machine to eat the entire Earth up has its own massive problems (like, won't the ones at the bottom be crushed into their constituent atoms?), but even if it worked - you haven't destroyed the Earth. You've just got a planet made of nanobots that still needs destroying somehow. Program them to hurl themselves into space? Well, that's Meticulous Deconstruction, above.

To be listed here, a method must actually work. That is, according to current scientific understanding, it must be possible for the Earth to actually be destroyed by this method, however improbable or impractical it may be.