Vote: What Are The Most Important Inventions Of The Last 25 Years?

I scored 7 our of 8. YEA!

Google Maps merely built on the shoulders of MapQuest.

why is the veyron out voted by the prius for best car... the prius isn't even that fuel efficient

This voting is way off because most people don't realize how important things like Mosaic Web Browser were. Yes, you may not use Mosaic anymore but you certainly use pieces of its code and design far more than Xbox Live.

@porsche469

It is one thing to build a fuel efficent vehicle, it is another to price it to where most people could afford it. If only 25 people buy your vehicle, you're not really solving a problem. The Veyron carries a MSRP of about $1,700,000. Not exactly a family sedan. The Prius wins because it is actually solving problems and wont cost you 15 years worth of salary.

iPhone? Really? How about the Razr? Palm? and every windows CE phone that showed the world what you can do with mobile computing?

Verizon did not bring 4G to the US, Sprint did. Verizon Did not have anything to do with the innovation that lead to 4G or 4G-LTE. WTF?

Nintendo Wii over Rio PMP? really? The Diamond Rio was the first mainstream gadget to legitimize the still underground MP3 format. It boldly went where no other would go. Long before the iPod, Diamond was making MP3 players in a shapes and sizes... and they were good! Really good products!

Where's Android OS? Where's the Tesla roadster? GPS technology? Fiber optic tech that enabled the 21st century global network? Mars rovers? Hubble telescope? ESO? Kepler? Casini? Solar observatory?

Sigh...

Popular Science huh?

@Silverbird

Except it doesn't solve any problem. It would actually be MORE fuel efficient if all the electric drive system and required components were removed. Hybrids don't get decent gas mileage because of the mix of systems, but simply because they have substantially smaller than normal engines.

For example, Ford actually has a car that is available in both Hybrid and all gas. The all gas version gets approx. 5 MPG better than the hybrid, passing the 50 MPG mark.

All too often people are comparing a Toyota Prius with its less than 100 HP engine with cars in the 250-350hp range. Even adding the electric engine ( of course all this depends on exact model ) but you get about 134 hp total. For 1 mile. Heck, even the brand new plug-in version can only get 14.3 miles out of its electric engine.

There is a way to make efficient "Hybrids"...the same way trains do. A diesel engine devoted to producing electric power for the drive. The diesel engine would have no connection to the wheels. However, I have no idea how feasible it is on the scale and driving habits of a car.

HOWEVER: I pretty much agree with your line of thought. 25 years and those are the 2 cars we chose? Really? A sad day.

In fact, this seems to extend to a whole lot more than just those 2.

First off, there are very few ( if any? ) "inventions" on the list. Tons of them are positively innovations. iPhone, ISS, Burj Khalifa, Nintendo Wii, etc. etc.

Also, why is the amazon kindle store listed, but NOT Google Play? ( Again, I don't think any of these app stores should be listed on an inventions list. Certainly not the most important of the last 25 years."

What about things like Carbon Fiber? You know, one of the most important materials inventions of all time? How about its cousin the Carbon Nano-Tube? Lithium Batteries? These were just off the top of my head. I could probably quadruple that just looking through popsci archives, and definitely get a lot more with proper research. I'm quite confident it's possible to find 32, actual inventions, all of which were more important than nearly every item on this list.

The only truly great things I see on this list: Human Genome Project, ISS and LHC. None of which were inventions, just innovations. There have been several previous space stations, tons of previous colliders, and we have sequenced a number of genomes well before humans.

I scored 7 out of 8, YEA! WooPeee!

I don't see any inventions among the choices presented; one, the AED, was actually invented earlier and the one shown has very similar competition; I spent most of a year under contract working on AED's at a firm that makes them.

http://www.physio-control.com/uploadedFiles/Physio85/Contents/About_Us/Newsroom/PhysioControl_Timeline_LowRes%282%29.pdf

It's pretty evident that scientists and engineers no longer read Popular Science. Perhaps it's because they seized to exist among the editors and writers at PopSci?

It just feels like a bunch of High Schoolers, poorly informed/educated and un-savvy pop culture junkies reading and writing on here; regurgitating whatever seems to be the flavor/trend of the week. It is soo dumbed down it hurts every time I get on here. I used to buy every issue as a kid. The material was detailed and educational man!

I understand you folks at PopSci have a magazine to run, but instead of hiring college kids as part time writers, here's a suggestion:

Just approach the tons of college science professors, fellows, researchers, inventors and engineers around the country, to write just one article each for PopSci. Given the magazine's lingering recognition, I'm sure they would be all too happy to submit and article about what they are working on and educate the readers on real science and technology. PopSci will have enough quality material to fire all their writers for good, hire a good editor and publish for another decade no problem.

Seriously!

If you had extended the timeline back to 1974, I would vote for the Intel 8080 microprocessor, which became the enabling technology for many of the other great inventions that followed. I wrote the first software for that chip.

Hello: THE WORLD WIDE WEB?! Without which, all of those other internet "inventions" would be kind of meaningless (and which was, by contrast, an actual _invention_)?

For a piece trying to cover 25 years a lot was left out. How about the internet? (WWW, whatever). Simply the most important invention since the steam engine, but it doesn't get a mention? I suppose when your writers and editors are kids, you tend to miss what was important if your time period equals or exceeds their time on the planet. I remember the IBM Selectric (it's a typewriter -- look it up in Wikipedia). The fax machine. Time before the internet existed. Time before Twitter and Facebook existed (HORRORS!!!! What did you ever do, Grandpa?). Cell phones that weighed eight pounds. The time when we carried lots of dimes to use to call in to the office. Payphone credit cards for long distance calling. If you want to do a piece about the greatest inventions of the past 25 years, then go back 25 years.

I can't believe Bugatti lost! The Prius is not amazing.

"God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it is."

Many of the best inventions of the last 25 years just happened and aren't even marketed yet. Then others are unorthodox inventions like the patriot Act. How much cash and power has that been worth so far? Any conventional listing like this is too arbitrary. Tiny Core Linux? Not important enough for this list or something with everything it's led to so far?

The Mosaic web browser was the base for Google. If it wasn't for Mosaic, Google inc. wouldn't exist!

"God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it is."

I agree with blaxpear, this is one of the worst researched articles I've seen in a long time, come on Popsci, get it back together, you didn't mention hundreds of more life/world changing inventions!

"God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it is."

I got the link today. But i live on the west coast so I don't get to vote. Some of us friggin work for a living.

Generic "cell phone" would win hands down!!

The 3D printer should have been on the list.

Where is Tesla Model S as great car? It is the only can named unanimously car of the year.