Technology
Vote on the final matchup in our Best of What's New bracket!
Posted 12.14.2012 at 11:30 am 10 Comments

Graphic by Katie Peek

Welcome to the final round of our bout!

There was no shortage of impassioned debate when we gathered to anoint the top 25 innovations in the history of Best of What’s New. But a dozen editors locked in a room can only get you so far. How do you rank the best of the best – the iPhone versus the Large Hadron Collider, the TiVo versus the Chunnel? How do you name the one product that has affected more, lasting change than all others? That friends, calls for a smackdown.

We've been tallying your votes through five rounds of head-to-head matchups (thanks to our friends over at Grantland whose Wire character smackdown inspired us). The ultimate goal: to name the most important product of the last quarter century.

We move on now to the last round: Wi-Fi versus the Human Genome Project! You may cast only one vote, so deliberate carefully. This poll will close Sunday, December 16, at 16:00 Eastern time.


10 Comments

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jabailo
12/14/12 at 12:05 pm

Artificial leaves. 2010.

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Robot
12/14/12 at 12:06 pm

Human Genome Project, NICE!

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RanoOnay
12/14/12 at 12:23 pm

Definitely HGP. We haven't even begun to see the benefits of this project. A few fruits of labor have been shown, but the real magic is going to happen in the next 10 to 50 years with the data we've collected, and the collaborated efforts from scientific communities world wide.

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myrkron
12/14/12 at 12:35 pm

This could have gone a lot faster if you simply set up a ranked-voting ballot to choose the Condorcet winner (the one who beats every other in a one-on-one vote).

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/w8/~andru/civs/civs_create.html

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nicholasjh1
12/14/12 at 12:36 pm

@RanoOnay Yes, I've already seen a huge amount of progress based on HGP... HGP didn't only bringing better knowledge about the human genome, but accellerated sequencing, having all sorts of downstream effects on genetic science. One instance is a medicine from Harvard that kills all viruses it's been tested on... Ie the antiViral equivalent to Penicillin. It's called Draco.

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UncleJesie
12/14/12 at 12:41 pm

$1,000 and 1 day = your genome sequenced in 2012. I was at the BioIT conference this year. In 50 years it's predicted every genome will be sequenced and all that data will fit on a flash drive. Thank you HGP. Hello GATTACA ...

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nicholasjh1
12/14/12 at 12:51 pm

Sorry... That should say MIT. and it does seem to be related, because Draco was made possible by quicker sequencing. The said thing is that research for approval is going so slow on it.

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erich.heerdt
12/14/12 at 1:19 pm

I think the very nature of the comments shows exactly what the answer should be. Many people here are voting for the Genome sequencing, saying that we will see the effects of it in the future. But the question is not about the most potential, but the greatest invention within the last 25 years. Genome sequencing hasnt done much yet, though hopefully will. I'm voting WiFi because it has changed the way we live our lives. Genome has huge potential to do that, but hasnt yet.

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joycefrances766
12/14/12 at 1:42 pm

as Gregory explained I am amazed that anyone able to earn $6260 in 4 weeks on the computer. did you look at this site link http://www.bit90.com

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Wimopy
12/16/12 at 4:00 pm

@erich.heerdt I understand what you mean and I guess it's more about your point-of-view. I read the question and "important invention" to me means "an invention that will be remembered and has or will have a global effect on life". In this way, I'd say the HGP is far greater than WiFi. Also, I believe it is grand that the project was actually started, humanity is ever closer to learn 'what makes us who we are'. Literally. WiFi seems like a small step compared to a big leap represented by the HGP.

Kind of ironic, saying that from a laptop using 802.11g WiFi.