Recently BBC Radio 4 nominated the bicycle as the people's favourite invention. For the those of us who indulge in a passion for cycling the result came as no shock, though it perhaps was surprising to see it as such a runaway leader, gaining more than half the vote, with the second placed invention, the transistor, trailing in with a mere 8%.

Adam Hart-Davis, television presenter, photographer and writer, would undoubtedly share the view that the bicycle is the best invention there has ever been? After all he once had a stable of seven bikes, and has told us that he cycles almost every day.

Not quite, but then we also knew of his penchant for the lavatory, having co-written a book called 'Taking the Piss' after a radio show of the same name. So is the bike more or less significant an invention than the humble loo?

"Very important for personal mobility, but less important than the lavatory, which is arguably the greatest step forward ever in medical technology, and has saved millions of lives - which the bicycle cannot claim."

Hard to argue with the logic.

Before moving in front of the camera Adam had spent 17 years a researcher for Yorkshire television, and amongst other things this Oxford chemistry graduate created two of the most successful education television series in the UK: Scientific Eye and Mathematical Eye.

But in 1992 everything was changed by Joseph Priestley...