Top 10 Scientific Inventions: X-Ray Places First

[hardwarekid9756]

Magnetic resonance imaging should be on there. X-rays were a window, but MRI is easily the most significant achievement in the medical field. It took internal imaging to a whole new level.

And I don't see why the Telescope isn't on there. Or the Microscope. The Turing bombs? Without those, modern computers would be nothing. What's their time-scale here? 1900's? 1800's? Because then we can get into batteries, too. I can think of 10 inventions GREATER than those inventions just off the top of my head. If I sat and thought about it and did some research, I could find 100.

 

[rockyjohn]

Two major problems arise in making a list of inventions with the greatest impact: how do you compare life saving discoveries like vacination with more technological ones, and how evaluate predecessor discoveries verse successors.

With respect to the former, I don't think you can make a meaningful comparison and suggest two lists are more meaningful. One the list of medical discoveries I would start with:

1. Germ theory of disease
2. Vaccination
3. Antibiotics (one could argue for the more specific like penicillin)
4. Birth control methods - more specifically the pill

With regard to the second issue, I think you have to give special consideration to the succession of discoveries and inventions in the electrical/electronics area - with each advance evolving out of its predecessor:

1. Electicity
2. Lights
3. Telegraph and telephone
4. Vaccum tube
5. Radio and televsion
6. Computer
7. Transistor
8. Internet
9. Communications technology

In addition to the above, several other inventions stand out as having considerable impact:

Printing press
Steam engine
Automobile
Airplane

Perhaps there are specific examples of each that merit special mention, but they are part of a process of invention contributed to by many and it is the general class of invention that has had the impact rather than the specific example.

Also relative to process, note the close association of the last 3 items in the final list - steam engine, automobile, and airplance - all part of the transportation process.

Finally, since the focus is on inventions with impact, I am guessing we neglected the great contributions of basic research, as well as applications in less public venues - such as power generation and transmission.

 

[anhxeom]

This list is as lame as the "10 failed game consoles" that was on here a few months ago

 

[IncinX]

They forgot the DUI chair.

 

[Ciuy]

INTERNETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

 

[praetorianguard]

What a rubbish and inaccurate list! Not to mention that not all of those are actually inventions, merely discoveries.
What about the light bulb, internal combustion engine, CAT scan or PET scan machines? What about the internet / world wide web?!
How it came to be that such a list doesn't at the very least feature a microchip or microprocessor is beyond me.
A select few of the inventions from the above list are worthy candidates but a list of this sort should be populated by inventions that continue to make a very significant impact on everyday life. I encounter or use anywhere from 20 to 500 (?) individual microprocessors each day. It's been a rather long time since I've even seen an x-ray machine (and I bet each has several processors controlling it).
The steam engine and x-ray machines were/are useful, and they did make an impact, but nowhere near as large as numerous other inventions.

 

[jamesedgeuk2000]

"scientific development that they felt had had the most impact on society"

Id say nuclear weapons have had more of an impact on society than everything on that list put together tbh, hell if it wasnt for nukes we would prberbly have had WWIII by now

dont forget the invention of condoms either

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

[citation][nom]Zirbmonkey[/nom]Sliced Bread is nowhere to be found.[/citation]

Forget sliced bread...what about canned bread?

http://mainegoodies.com/gourmet/cannedbrownbread.shtml

 

[oghoti]

[citation][nom]Rab1d-BDGR[/nom]supertrek32 is right. We're all thinking too modern...[/citation]

You're right, but you missed out the wheel. Perhaps because you were side tracked by the porn?

 

[ssalim]

Breast implant. LOL jk

 

[obsidian86]

heart transplant should be in there

 

[chuenl]

If there is electricity, none of these 10 will be there.

 

[chuenl]

My typo: If there is no electricity, none of these 10 will be there.

 

[Onus]

Jacobdrj's list is good. The printing press definitely belongs. I'd take off vaccination, which is an application of other inventions, and add the incandescent light bulb; that led to the discovery of vacuum tubes, then we got the transistor in 1947. Smelting of ores brought on various historical ages (e.g. Bronze Age, Iron Age). Sterile technique revolutionized surgery, as did anaesthesia. It is hard to pick a top ten list.

 

[Guest]

not in any particular order: Microprocessor/transistor/Integrated Circuits, manufactured ammonia/fertilizer/modern agriculture, Cell phone/Television/Radio, antibiotics, modern sanitation systems(Sewer and Water), the electrical power grid, the four cycle internal combustion engine, Photographic film, X Ray machines, The Microscope/optics. Not really machines; Journalism, Government, Legal Systems, Educational Systems, The Mail, Retail (fixed price marketplace)....
Just a few thoughts.

 

[socrates047]

the printing press by guttenburg anyone?

 

[o0RaidR0o]

[citation][nom]alaeddin[/nom]Dynamite should be up there as well without it there would be no railroad (or not as big) and no Suez or panama canals. Almost every kind of mining quarrying uses it. Construction and transportation in general would not have gotten where it is today without it.Simply, the world would be completely different had it not been invented.[/citation]

Yeah thanks to our slanted eyed brethren in the east No not the railroad part, the gun powder part.

 

[Onus]

Oh, let's not forget soap, although it seems a lot of geeks aren't too familiar with this substance :-D.
No to MRI and CT scanning; fantastic inventions, but they are combinations of some of the others (e.g. XRay + mathematics + microprocessors + ...)
Others, not necessarily that their impact has been wholly positive, but has been great:
Ink, gunpowder/explosives, refrigeration, insecticides/pesticides

 

[Yoder54]

I agree with the DNA an invention? It is a discovery. But wait, a Brit was involved in the research.

An invention that should be on there that has transformed the modern world is the "Green Revolution," where they altered the genetics of wheat and rice to increase yields and thus began to meet the worlds food needs. It happened at Washington SU in the 60's or 70's.

Printing press is the greatest invention ever, but it is not a scientific invention.

Why do they duplicate the rockets? Was the atomic bomb omitted for obvious reasons? What about the USB? Microchips? How about DDT and it's fight against malaria?

The Pilot Ace Computer was the first computer built in the UK, but the first computer was the ENIAC built in the USA. Looks like this British ariticle is trying to put some attention on their accomplishments in the field of science...which is not shit compared to the US.

A very weak article.

 

[LATTEH]

"8th place - Steam Engine"


for a second i was like how did valve get on that list then i just facepalmed myself...