Best inventions of the 20th & 21st century

[slowmotion]

How many valves can you fit on a silicon chip?

Who cares? A KT88 sounds an awful lot better.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I think the internet would be my choice as well. It has (rightly or wrongly) shaped the entire world in terms of social and commercial.

 

[User32269]

George Foreman Grill.

 

[AndyRM]

Pokemon Go.

 

[coffeejo]

The NHS.

 

[MrPie]

Advances in modern materials is very understated, but in reality we have made huge industrial progress and can't do without 'em: high strength low alloy steels, stainless steels, high nickel alloys, composites, carbon fibre, elastomers.......

 

[winjim]

Tandem mass spectrometry.

Happy 97th birthday to the mass spectrometer!
http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/collections/chemistry-calendar/august-15

Not sure when somebody first had the idea of bolting two of 'em together, but they really do have fantastic clinical applications, particularly in the field of newborn screening.

 

[swee'pea99]

Condoms

 

[jefmcg]

The Haber process.

This is not getting enough love. This has probably changed to earth more than any of the above.

And Fritz Haber was such a fascinating man; zyklon A and chlorine gas and nitrogen fertilisers.

 

[jefmcg]

Condoms

Way older than 1900.

Colossus, potentially saved millions of lives during WW2 - the forerunner to the modern PC.

It may have been the forerunner, but sadly not the ancestor, due to it being kept a secret for many years.

 

[swee'pea99]

Way older than 1900.

Well maybe, but made out of sheep's intestines, so not really very effective as a general population family-planning device.

 

[jefmcg]

Well maybe, but made out of sheep's intestines, so not really very effective as a general population family-planning device.

Rubber ones first appeared in 1855 (thanks wikipedia). Just because they got a bit better in the 20th century, doesn't make them a new invention.

 

[User33236]

The Nintendo Wii.

It got kids up and moving around again albeit whilst still playing video games. Microsoft and Sony then took this development and created their own versions of control systems.

 

[swee'pea99]

Rubber ones first appeared in 1855 (thanks wikipedia). Just because they got a bit better in the 20th century, doesn't make them a new invention.

Wow! Well as my old mum used to say, you learn something new every day!

 

[hopless500]

I can't imagine what raising kids would have been like before the invention of wet wipes. Good for cleaning the bike too.

Bad for the environment though
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...XYUIfHl2Rky9gE2FpnFI-w&bvm=bv.129422649,d.ZGg