Although HEAs were considered from a theoretical standpoint as early as 1981 and 1996, and throughout the 1980s, in 1995 Taiwanese scientist Jien-Wei Yeh came up with his idea for ways of actually creating high-entropy alloys, while driving through the Hsinchu, Taiwan, countryside. Soon after, he decided to begin creating these special alloys in his lab, being in the only region researching these alloys for over a decade. Most countries in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world lagged behind in the development of HEAs. Significant research interest from other countries did not develop until after 2004 when Yeh and his team of scientists built the world's first high-entropy alloys to withstand extremely high temperatures and pressures. Potential applications include use in state-of-the-art race cars, spacecraft, submarines, nuclear reactors, jet aircraft, nuclear weapons, long range hypersonic missiles, and so on.