5th
The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years
30. Anti retroviral treatment for AIDS (Health Care)
29. SRAM flash memory (Electronics)
28. Stents (Health Care)
27. ATMs (Finance)
26. Bar codes and scanners (Retail)
25. Bio fuels (Biotechnology)
24. Genetically modified plants (Biotechnology)
23. RFID and applications (e.g. EZpass) (Electronics)
22. Digital photography/videography (Electronics)
21. Graphic user interface (GUI) (Computer Science)
20. Social networking via internet (Media)
19. Large scale wind turbines (Energy)
18. Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Energy)
17. Microfinance (Finance)
16. Media file compression (e.g., jpeg, mpeg, mp3) (Computer Science)
15. Online shopping/ecommerce/auctions (e.g., eBay) (Information Technology)
14. GPS Systems (Electronics)
13. Liquid Crystal Displays (Electronics)
12. Light emitting diodes (first real devices in 1960s; in products in mid-70s) (Electronics)
11. Open source software and services (e.g., Linux, Wikipedia) (Media)
10. Non-invasive laser/robotic surgery (laparoscopy) (Health Care)
9. Office software (Spreadsheets, word processors) (Computer Science)
8. Fiber optics (Telecommunications)
7. Microprocessors (Computer Science)
6. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Biotechnology)
5. DNA testing and sequencing/Human genome mapping (Biotechnology)
4. E-mail (Computer Science)
3. Mobile phones (Telecommunications)
2. PC/laptop computers (Computer Science)
1. Internet/broadband/WWW (browser and HTML) (Telecommunications)
Source:
The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years
PBS, February 16, 2009
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/top-30-innovations_home/
A list worthy of debate. Would like to see those that just missed the cut.
