 Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the world's economic, scientific, and cultural stages.From the development of gold mining techniques and logging practices in the 19th century that were later adopted around the world, to the development of world-famous and online business models (such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Yahoo!, and eBay), northern California has been at the forefront of new ways of doing business.In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, to breakthroughs in microchip technology.