Top 25: Innovations
CNN.com - Top 25: Innovations - Jan 10, 2005
ATMs, PDAs and CDs: 25 years of innovation
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Posted: 1541 GMT (2341 HKT)
TOP INNOVATIONS
The number one innovation will be announced on Sunday, January 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
2. Cell phone
3. Personal computers
4. Fiber optics
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS
7. Portable computers
8. Memory storage discs
9. Consumer level digital camera
10. Radio frequency ID tags
11. MEMS
12. DNA fingerprinting
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries
16. Hybrid car
17. OLEDs
18. Display panels
19. HDTV
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology
22. Flash memory
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio
(CNN) -- Back in 1980, the expression "you can't take it with you" carried a lot more weight than it does today -- mainly because "it" weighed too much.
Over the past quarter century, though, scientific innovation has made almost everything portable.
That's how the cell phone and the laptop computer landed at Nos. 2 and 7, respectively, on a list of the top 25 innovations of the past 25 years, according to a panel of technology leaders assembled by the Lemelson-MIT Program, which promotes inventiveness in teens.
In creating the list, the group hoped to single out "25 non-medically related technological innovations that have become widely used since 1980, are readily recognizable by most Americans, have had a direct and perceptible impact on our everyday lives, and/or could dramatically affect our lives in the future."
Like the cell phone and laptop, many of the items on the list are so commonplace that they are almost taken for granted.
For example, many people turn off their PCs (No. 3) and their HDTV (No. 19) or plasma screen TVs (No. 18) as they leave their homes.
Once in their cars, they will probably give the airbags (No. 13) that can save their lives in an accident barely an afterthought as they listen to music on CDs (No. 8).
Some will use the commercialized GPS (Global Positioning System, No. 6) to plan their route, and if it is a pleasure trip, they will probably bring along their digital cameras (No. 9).
Upon arriving at their destination, others will check their e-mail (No. 5) via short-range high frequency radio (Wi-Fi, No. 25) and their voicemail (No. 23), before heading off to an ATM (No. 14) for cash.
'Thank goodness for nanotechnology'
The technology that makes these items possible is taken even more for granted by the average consumer.
It is safe to say that the first words of someone who walks away from a car accident unharmed are not, "Thank goodness for the advent of nanotechnology (No. 21) and MEMS (microelectromechanical system, No. 11)."
Yet without the tiny silicon chip that sensed the impending collision, the airbag would not have deployed in time.
"The device that causes an airbag to inflate in a crash is a nanotech device," said David Kirkpatrick, senior editor at Fortune Magazine.
"It's a highly sensitive little device, an accelerometer that can detect when a car's movement has suddenly stopped. And that's a very key safety device that affects all of our lives."
Also helping keep people safe are advanced compact power sources such as nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries (No. 15), which make emergency phone calls possible. Without those batteries, cell phones would be far less dependable and certainly not rechargeable.
And digital cameras would not exist without flash memory (No. 22) and OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes, No. 17).
"Flash memory is a tiny version of the disk drive that's in your computer," said Gene Fitzgerald, MIT professor of material science and engineering. "On your disk drive you might store pictures and other information, and the flash memory is a tiny device that can store all that information."
Fighting crime with science
Law enforcement has used science to its advantage with DNA fingerprinting (No. 12).
The procedure is nothing like the ink-on-the-fingers routine you see on TV crime shows. DNA fingerprinting is a laboratory process that produces a printed pattern of a person's DNA. Everyone's DNA is different ---- just like each person's fingerprints are unique.
"DNA fingerprinting is important because it's an absolute identification of each individual," said Merton Flemings, director of the Lemelson-MIT program and MIT professor of material science and engineering.
"No two DNA fingerprints are alike, so we can distinguish the individual who committed a crime from one who didn't, and we can determine family relationships that couldn't otherwise be determined."
story.fiberoptics.photodisc.jpg
Fiber optics help link the world together, making inexpensive phone calls and the plethora of cable channels possible.
Identifying objects also is easier these days. Everything from airport security and delivery services to supermarket checkout lines uses radio frequency ID tags (No. 10) to track materials on their way to their intended destinations.
Some of the inventions on the list have brought to life concepts formerly reserved for science-fiction writers. Among them are the space shuttle (No. 20), which advanced space exploration, and hybrid cars (No. 16), which pollute less by using less gasoline. Interestingly, the innovation that laid the groundwork for many of the inventions mentioned above can be found underground, where fiber optics (No. 4) has helped turn the world into a global village.
"Fiber optics have linked the world together and made our world, our planet, basically one small place. If it weren't for fiber optics, we wouldn't be able to have inexpensive global phone calls or 200 cable channels on our televisions," Kirkpatrick said.
"There are innumerable ways that fiber optics have changed our life, but the most significant one is that they have woven the planet together into a very tightly knit global society."
Rounding out the list are modern hearing aids (No. 24), which have improved the quality of life for the hearing impaired by offering sleeker, better-designed models.
In the coming days, CNN.com will announce the invention panel members chose as the most significant of the last 25 years. Be sure to log on and find out what they ranked No. 1.
January 16, 2005 at 11:41 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
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