85 Big Ideas that Changed the World

ccnull writes "Forbes just put out its well thought-out list of 85 breakthroughs since 1917 (sneakers) that have revolutionized the way we live. This is interesting on a number of levels -- crazy trivia (the microprocessor and the answering machine invented in the same year!?), a reminder of the past (the modem: 1962), and a frightening realization that not much of interest has come out of the last 10 years (a whopping 4 of the 85 ideas). Easily digestible and worth discussing."

Comments

1921 - Tetraethyl Lead

[damieng]

"Thomas Midgely adds lead to gasoline to stop power-draining knocking."

As if burning fuel wasn't bad enough already add a toxic metal to it to really juice things up. It's already banned in many countries including the USA and UK.

This site has further commentary and also covers his discovery of Freons that later helped damage the ozone layer including how his final invention killed him.

Surely the whole idea of such an article is to choose the inventions with the benefit of hindsight.

Mozilla 1.3 users

[mao che minh]

For the slide show on the Forbes web page, you have to hit "next" like 3 or 4 times until it starts showing up. In other words, it does work.

Re:Exactly

[WolfWithoutAClause]

No it really did. Without that car engines run rough as hell; these days we know more ways to avoid premature ignition, but back in those days, there was only one, and he found it.

Without this, motor cars wouldn't have been practical. And frankly the replacements don't work as well- lead protects valve seats far, far better.

start here

[e40]

this is better than the link given.

Re:Recent Ideas

[Library Spoff]

I know here in the UK BT have taken away a lot of phone boxes cause the demand isn't there due to cell phones.

dunno what superman will do tho...

Re:Tetraethyl lead

[dhogaza]

A major motivation was to improve gas mileage. By allowing for higher compression, more efficient engines gas mileage was improved by something like 30%.

Today gas is so cheap and our standard of living so high that most people aren't terribly concerned about the amount of money they spend on gasoline.

This wasn't true in the early days of the automobile and the significant boost in mileage and the corresponding lowering of the cost of operating a car was considered important.
.

Re:BUSINESS breakthroughs

[WEFUNK]

Yeah, the theory of relativity has a lot of meaning to the world at large. That lead to the invention of the.. oh, wait. It didn't lead to jack shit.

In addition to the rather obvious example of nuclear technology, the theory of relativity is necessary for the functionality of satellites and therefore essential to our modern communications infrastructure, GPS systems, and the many derivative technologies that depend on these systems.

Along with the discovery, development, and application of quantum mechanics, the application of Einstein's theories play an important role in the economy. I've seen studies (I really wish I had the references handy) that estimate the percentage of the US economy dependent on Quantum Mechanics and Relativity at anywhere from 30% to 75% of GDP. The higher percentages probably include indirect benefits from semiconductors, communications, as well as applications that led from derivative research.

As previously mentioned, the only reason it wouldn't have been included directly was that the list celebrates ideas since Forbes magazine began 85 years ago, not from the turn of the century when the basis for these ideas were first established.