TIME: 50 Best Inventions of 2009

[Mako]

1. The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets
2. The Tank-Bred Tuna
3. The $10 Million Lightbulb
4. The Smart Thermostat
5. Controller-Free Gaming
6. Teleportation
7. The Telescope for Invisible Stars
8. The AIDS Vaccine
9. Tweeting by Thinking
10. The Electric Eye
11. The Mercury Probe
12. The Personal Carbon Footprint
13. The Solar Shingle
14. The Handheld Ultrasound
15. The YikeBike
16. Vertical Farming
17. The Planetary Skin
18. The $20 Knee
19. A Watchdog for Financial Products
20. The Electric Microbe
21. The Bladeless Fan
22. The Custom Puppy
23. The Cyborg Beetle
24. The Biotech Stradivarius
25. The Nissan Leaf
26. The Robo-Penguin
27. The Universal Unicycle
28. YouTube Funk
29. Dandelion Rubber
30. Wooden Bones
31. The Living Wall
32. The School of One
33. The No-Punt Offense
34. The Human-Powered Vending Machine
35. The Handyman's X-Ray Vision
36. Meat Farms
37. Packing, Improved
38. The Foldable Speaker
39. The Levitating Mouse
40. The Edible Race Car
41. The High-Speed Helicopter
42. The Supersuit
43. The Eyeborg
44. Spiderweb Silk
45. The Sky King
46. The Smart Bullet
47. The Fashion Robot
48. The 3-D Camera
49. The Newest Cloud
50. The World's Fastest (Steam-Powered) Car

Read more.

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I thought a lot of these were very interesting and I haven't even heard about a lot of them. Like the new design of the light bulb that could save us millions and last 25 times longer. And I had no idea it was possible to teleport atoms already.

[c03n3nj0]

Some of those sound cool.

[dsister]

Aren't 5 and 48 the same thing?

[Falcon095]

Aren't 5 and 48 the same thing?

How's 3d camera and controller-free gaming the same thing?

OT:

Yeah saw that some days ago, some are pretty cool

[Kenzomatic]

This list seems odd to me. I really never thought of the automobile as an invention nor the space shuttle. I thought of the combustion engine as an invention. I know the definition of invention but to me an invention is something unique not an arrangement of previous invention stacked together to make something new (yes I see the irony here but surely you understand what I mean).

Also I separate discoveries and invention (though they are the same) I would file vaccines under discovery and the light bulb under invention. Clearly both are inventions and both are discoveries but that is how my mind files things.

[dsister]

Aren't 5 and 48 the same thing?

How's 3d camera and controller-free gaming the same thing?

Project Natal?

[Luinil]

this list is FAIL for including the personal carbon footprint...

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