In 1999, 5-year-old Gonzalez was found clinging to an inner tube off Florida after his mother and others drowned while fleeing Cuba toward American soil.

NPR: Cuba To Turn Over Florida Couple And Children

Created to help the world's couch potatoes turn the tube on and off without having to make the arduous 2-meter journey to the TV set, the standby feature has spread to virtually every appliance in the home and office.

WSJ: Switching Off Standby Mode

They were even able to use a stone of the wrong size to release one of the right size, which they then used to get the waxworm, and, more remarkably still, to prune twigs off a stick to make it fit the tube.

ECONOMIST: Tool use by non-tool-using animals

Since Elian first appeared off the Florida coast in November, clinging to an inner tube with his companions and his mother long-since drowned, his story has grown more and more bizarre.

ECONOMIST: Send Elian home

The pod is designed with an inflatable tube around its edges, which should cause it to bounce off the walls of a building.

ECONOMIST: Safety

He'd spent eight years developing a special kind of Foley catheter--a flexible tube inserted into the bladder of hospital patients and disabled people to drain urine--that staved off inevitable infections.

FORBES: Magazine Article