Top 30 Innovations
of the Last 30 Years
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special
/subdir/top-30-innovations_slide-show/
• Nightly Business Report - PBS business
program
• Knowledge@Wharton
• 1,200 suggestions -- everything from lithiumion batteries, LCD screens and eBay to the
mute button, GPS and suitcase wheels
• A panel of eight judges from Wharton
reviewed and selected the top 30 of these
innovations
Judging Criteria
• 1. Did it improve quality of life, having a direct and/or
material effect on quality of life?
• 2. Did it address a compelling need? solve a
compelling problem?
• 3. Was it a fresh breakthrough with a "wow" factor?
• 4. Did it change the way business is conducted?
• 5. Did it increase the efficiency of how resources are
used?
• 6. Did it spark an ongoing stream of new innovations
on top of the original innovation?
• 7. Did it lead to the creation of a vast, new industry?
• #1
Internet/Broadband/World
Wide Web
• The Internet has been called a
network of networks. It is the
infrastructure of computer
connections that allows us to
use the World Wide Web to
send emails, share files, and
look up information on just
about any topic simply by
typing a few keywords into a
search engine. The
foundations of the Internet
came to life prior to 1979, but
its use truly began to
transform the way the world
works in the late 1990's.
• #2
PC/Laptop Computers
• IBM coined the term PC (Personal
Computer) when it launched its
IBM 5150 model in 1981. The
new term encapsulated IBM's
goal of getting computers into the
hands of individuals. Also in 1981,
the Osborne 1 became the first
laptop computer marketed to the
public. It weighed more than 20
pounds. Throughout the next two
decades, PC's and laptops
gradually became smaller, more
powerful, and more ubiquitous in
both businesses and homes.
• #3
Mobile Phones
• The first mobile phone hit
the market in 1982. It was
manufactured by Nokia, and
it weighed more than 20
pounds. Today, mobile
phones weigh just ounces
and have the functionality
of computers. They have
improved the efficiency of
communication in
developed countries, and
they've done even more for
undeveloped countries by
bringing phone service to
regions that lacked it.
• #4
E-Mail
• Historians believe e-mail
(electronic mail) evolved
from messages sent by
programmers using a timesharing computing system
at Massachusetts Insitute of
Technology in the 1960's.
But, e-mail didn't really
become accessible to the
public until the late 1980's,
and its use became more
widespread in the 1990's.
Today, e-mail is a staple of
business and personal
communication.
• #5
DNA Testing and
Sequencing/Human Genome
Mapping
• The structure of DNA was first
discovered by Watson and Crick
in 1953, but it wasn't until the
late 1970's that scientists began
to sequence some DNA
molecules. Then, in 1990, the U.S.
government organized the effort
to map the human genome. This
effort to identify all the 20,000 to
25,000 genes in human DNA was
completed 13 years later, in 2003.
The achievement has led to great
advancements in the research of
and treatment of genetic
diseases.
• #6
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(MRI)
• In the 1970's, scientists figured
out how to use nuclear
magnetic resonance to
produce images, and they
began using those images to
detect diseases in tissue
samples. In 1977, a prototype
of a magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) machine
conducted the first full body
scan. However, it wasn't until
the late 1990's that MRI
technology became truly
portable and, as a result,
widely available in hospitals
and doctor's offices.
• #7
Microprocessors
• A microprocessor is a single
integrated circuit that holds a
central processing unit (CPU).
The first microprocessors were
developed in the 1970's for
calculators. By the end of the
1970's, the microprocessor
had led to the development of
the microcomputer or
personal computer. Ever since,
the size of microprocessors
has been shrinking while their
processing capacity has been
growing, and the world has
been changing as a result.
• #8
Fiber Optics
• The science behind fiber optics
has been studied since the
1800's, but it wasn't until the
1970's that the quality of optical
fibers improved enough to allow
their use in communication
applications. Fiber optics quickly
became the preferred medium
for telecommunication and
networking because the cables
can span long distances with few
repeaters and can carry signals at
rates over 100 gigabytes per
second, though speeds that fast
aren't widely used.
• #9
Office Software
• Office software, including
word processing and
spreadsheet programs, has
shaped the way we do
business, improving efficiency
and giving analytical power to
more members of the
workforce. This software
evolved during the 1960's and
1970's. Visicalc -- the first
spreadsheet program -- was
distributed in 1979. WordStar,
which also debuted in 1979,
became the most popular
word processing program of
the early 1980's.
• # 10
Non-Invasive Laser/Robotic
Surgery
• The 1980's bred major
developments in surgery. The
first minimally invasive -- or
laparoscopic -- surgery was
performed in 1987. Robots
were first used to perform
biopsies in 1985. And, in the
early 1980's, scientists
discovered that lasers could be
used to cut organic tissue. All
of these developments helped
make surgery more precise,
which in turn, made surgery
safer and reduced the
recovery time for patients.
• # 11
Open Source Software and
Services
• Frustrated by copyrights
companies added to software in
the 1970's Richard Stallman -- a
former MIT programmer -launched the GNU Project in
1984. His goal was to create an
operating system with no
restrictions on accessing source
code. Along the way, he
published the first free software
license. This GNU General Public
License has since been used to
release Linux, OpenOffice.org,
Mozilla Firefox, WikiPedia, and
other open source software and
services.
• # 12
Light Emitting Diode
products (LEDs)
• Light emitting diodes (LEDs)
are tiny, cool-running light
sources. Scientists have
been experimenting with
them since the early 1900's,
but the technology wasn't
practical until the 1960's.
The calculator was one of
the first products to
incorporate LEDs, and many
products -- particularly
appliances and automobiles
-- followed suit in the 1970's
and 1980's.
• # 13
Liquid Crystal Displays
(LCDs)
• Liquid crystals were first
discovered in the late
1800's, but scientists didn't
figure out how to use
electricity to create intricate
patterns with the crystals
until the 1960's. The first
liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
began to appear in the
1970's. Today, LCDs are
found in clocks, computers,
televisions, automobiles,
and many other products.
• # 14
GPS
• The U.S. Department of
Defense brought the Global
Positioning System (GPS) -- a
network of more than 24
satellites that can be used to
pinpoint locations on earth -online in 1993. Though
conceived for military
applications, the GPS quickly
became a civilian navigation
aid and spawned its own
industry. Today, there are GPS
devices in cars, mobile
phones, watches, and other
products.
• # 15
Online Shopping/
E-Commerce/Auctions
• Today's electronic commerce
(ecommerce) grew out of the
Electronic Data Interchange
companies used to conduct
transactions via computer
networks in the 1960's and
1970's. In the 1980's,
CompuServe created an
Electronic Mall for its users,
but it wasn't user friendly.
Once the World Wide Web
and browsers were invented in
the 1990's, ecommerce
exploded and companies like
Amazon.com and eBay
sparked the dot-com boom.
• # 16
Media File Compression
• Media file compression is a
natural extension of the
data compression computer
scientists developed to
store text files in the 1970's.
In the 1980's, committees
of experts created the
popular compression
standards we know as JPEG
and MPEG. Without
compression, we would not
be able to transmit images,
audio, and video via the
Internet.
• # 17
Microfinance
• The concept behind
microfinance -- bringing
financial services to poor or
low-income individuals -- has
existed for centuries, but it
became a movement in the
1980's. That's when economist
Muhammad Yunus founded
his Grameen Bank and started
making very small loans to the
poor in Bangladesh. The goal
of such loans is to give people
the means to lift themselves
out of poverty. Yunus and
Grameen were awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
• # 18
Photovoltaic Solar Energy
• Scientists first discovered the
photovoltaic effect in the
1800's, and a handful of
industrial revolution-era
factories used solar power to
produce steam. The modern
solar energy movement
started as a response to the oil
embargo and energy crises of
the 1970's. Today, there are a
number of commercial solar
power plants, and some
individuals are using solar
panels to heat pools, water,
and even return energy to the
electric grid.
• # 19
Large Scale Wind Turbines
• Wind power has an ancient
history, with the first windmills
appearing in 200 B.C. The
modern wind energy
movement started as a
response to the oil embargo
and energy crises of the
1970's. Today, many nations
have wind power plants -- or
wind farms -- in operation. The
U.S. leads the world in total
wind power generation, while
Denmark leads the world in
the percentage of wind power
as part of total energy output.
• # 20
Social Networking via Internet
• Social network websites are
defined by their combination
of two features -- profiles and
friend lists. SixDegrees.com,
which launched in 1997, is
considered the earliest social
network site. The first social
networks mainly appealed to
early adopters; then came
MySpace. In 2003, MySpace
launched and began to appeal
to broader audiences. Today,
social network sites, led by
MySpace and Facebook, have
changed the way people
connect.
• # 21
Graphic User Interface (GUI)
• Douglas Englebart -- the father
of the graphical user interface
(GUI) -- invented the first GUI
in 1968. It had a CRT display,
two keyboards, and the first
mouse. Englebart's work
inspired others, and GUI
design really began to advance
in the late 1970's and early
1980's with the development
of onscreen windows and
icons. Today, the GUI is the
preferred method of humanmachine interaction.
• # 22
Digital
Photography/Videography
• The earliest forays into digital
imaging were rooted in video.
The first solid-state video
camera was prototyped in
1970, and the Mavica still
camera Sony built in 1981
actually worked more like a
video camera. In the late
1980's, the development of
the mega pixel sensor and
improved storage mediums
made digital photography and
videography commercially
viable. And, it only took time
for the digital market to
outstrip the film market.
• # 23
RFID and Applications
• Radio frequency
identification (RFID) grew
out of efforts to identify
aircraft during World War II.
In the 1970's, the first
patents for RFID tags were
issued, and in the 1980's
RFID went commercial
when it was used to
develop an automated toll
payment system. Today,
many of the world's largest
retailers -- including WalMart -- use RFID to track
inventory.
• # 24
Genetically Modified Plants
• The development of
genetically modified plants
was a natural evolution of
the work of Gregor Mendel
in the 1800's and the
discovery of DNA structure
in 1953. In 1994, the first
genetically modified plant -a crop of California
tomatoes -- went to market.
Today, commercial growers
modify crops to make them
resistant to diseases and to
make them better able to
tolerate pesticides.
• # 25
Biofuels
• The early history of biofuels is
tied to the history of Rudolf
Diesel, whose first engines ran
on biofuels like peanut oil. In
1908, Henry Ford built a
Model T that ran on ethanol.
Of course, both Diesel and
Ford soon found petroleum to
be a more efficient fuel
source. In the 1970's, energy
crises and the adoption of the
U.S. Clean Air Act boosted
interest in biofuels. Today's
biofuel market continues to
grow in response to energy
and environment issues.
• # 26
Bar Codes and Scanners
• The first bar code (with
reader) was invented in the
1950's, but bar code wasn't
used commercially until the
1960's. Its use expanded in
the 1970's once a bar code
standard (UPC) was
developed and the first
supermarket -- Marsh's in
Troy, Ohio -- installed a UPC
scanner. Bar codes are now
a standard in the retail
industry and also have
important manufacturing
and military applications.
• # 27
ATMs
• Early versions of the automatic
teller machine (ATM)
appeared in the 1960's, but
they dispensed only
predetermined amounts of
money and were not
networked to computers. Use
of ATMs expanded in the
1970's, after the magnetic
stripe card was introduced and
the machines were networked
to computers. These days
ATMs have become a part of
daily life, and they allow many
people to do their banking
with little human contact.
• # 28
Stents
• The inspiration for the
invention of the modern
coronary or heart stent came
from the failings of
angioplasty. In some cases, an
artery would close up again
after the angioplasty balloon
was removed. Doctors wanted
a way to keep those arteries
open permanently. The first
stent was inserted in a human
coronary artery in 1986, and
the first stents were approved
for use in the U.S. in 1994.
• # 29
SRAM/Flash Memory
• Static random access memory
(SRAM) was invented in 1970,
around the same time
dynamic random access
memory (DRAM) was
invented. SRAM is simpler and
faster than DRAM, which
makes it better suited to
handle cache memory
functions in computers. Flash
memory was invented in 1980,
and the first USB Flash Drive
went to market in 1996. The
drive quickly revolutionized
the storage and transfer of
computer data.
• # 30
Anti-Retroviral Treatment
for AIDS
• AIDS became an epidemic in
the 1980's. In 1984, the
retrovirus that caused the
disease was isolated, and
doctors turned to zidovudine - a 20 year old, rejected anticancer drug -- for help.
Renamed AZT, this drug
attacked the virus and saved
lives. In 1987, AZT became the
first antiretroviral drug
approved by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration. In the
1990's, more antiretrovirals
were developed.