In 1960 a metal-coated plastic balloon 100ft across sent up by America's space agency was used by Bell to bounce telephone calls to distant destinations in the United States.

ECONOMIST: John Pierce

"It's like taking the air out of a balloon, " says Berish Strauch, academic chair and professor of plastic surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center.

FORBES: Fastest-Growing Plastic Surgeries