RSS Feeds
Gadgets
Time Names Top 50 Inventions of 2008
Posted by Mark Wilson at 2:44 AM on November 1, 2008
Time Magazine has gone through all of the inventions of 2008, from walking chairs to spaghetti forks, and declared to best 50 of the year (and of course, a winner, which was this at-home genetic testing service by 23andMe). Many of their choices are predictable, like the Large Hadron Collider. Some are easy to overlook, like the Global Seed Vault. And others are straight-up controversial, like the baseball instant replay or the game Spore.
Time has the full list on their site, but it's divided into 50 different pages. So we've condensed it into easy list form:
Time Top 50 Inventions 2008
1. The Retail DNA Test
2. The Tesla Roadster
3. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
4. Hulu.com
5. The Large Hadron Collider
6. The Global Seed Vault
7. The Chevy Volt
8. Bullets That Shoot Bullets
9. The Orbital Internet
10. The World's Fastest Computer
11. Green Crude
12. Housing Funds
13. The Memristor
14. The Bionic Hand
15. The Direct-to-Web Supervillain Musical
16. The Dynamic Tower
17. The Mobile, Dexterous, Social Robot
18. The New Mars Rover
19. Montreal's Public Bike System
20. The Everything Game
21. The Synthetic Organism
22. The Shadowless Skyscraper
23. The Branded Candidate
24. Bionic Contacts
25. Thin-Film Solar Panels
26. The Speedo LZR Racer
27. Bubble Photography
28. The Invisibility Cloak
29. The 46th Mersenne Prime
30. The Internet of Things
31. Einstein's Fridge
32. Facebook for Spies
33. Biochemical Energy Harvester
34. Made-in-Transit Packaging
35. Airborne Wind Power
36. The New Ping-Pong Serve
37. Smog-Eating Cement
38. The Baseball Instant Replay
39. Enhanced Fingerprints
40. The Seven New Deadly Sins
41. The Peraves MonoTracer
42. Disenvoweling
43. High-Tech Running Shoes
44. Sunscreen for Plants
45. The Short Refinance
46. Aptera Electric Car
47. Google's Floating Data Center
48. The Time Eater Clock
49. Sound-Enhanced Food
50. A Camera for the Blind
Read the reasoning behind the decisions over at Time. [Time]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Nintenboy01
Posted 4:09 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine: Loitering is an invention? I thought it was an (in)activity...
Nintenboy01
tande04
Posted 4:09 AM 1/11/08
@phryed: First computer to break the petaflop barrier. No, I don't think its a joke.
tande04
Nintenboy01
Posted 4:08 AM 1/11/08
@Curves: It'll render Maury obsolete.
Nintenboy01
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Posted 4:07 AM 1/11/08
@Curves: Now wait for the Maury Edition.
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
tande04
Posted 4:07 AM 1/11/08
Did anyone notice the mini list at the bottom of the page?
Top 5 gadgets as voted by users?
The Peek e-mail device is number 1????
[www.time.com]
tande04
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Posted 4:07 AM 1/11/08
Well my favorite inventions are..
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Curves
Posted 4:06 AM 1/11/08
I love the retail DNA test. You can run but you cant hide.....
Curves
N@tedog
Posted 4:05 AM 1/11/08
Is disenvoweling an invention?
N@tedog
tande04
Posted 4:05 AM 1/11/08
@jestermeister: It isn't a larger bullet that shoots out smaller bullets. Its a bullet that knocks out other bullets before they get to you.
[www.time.com]
tande04
jestermeister
Posted 4:00 AM 1/11/08
@caliaa: Granted, hulu.com is just a website anyone could have made...it isn't going to one day envelope the world in a blink of an eye.
jestermeister
jestermeister
Posted 3:59 AM 1/11/08
@mikeg1130: I think this is the new special forces weapon that you fire over an enemy, stops at a pre-set distance, and then explodes above them. Supposed to replace grenade launchers.
jestermeister
ripfire
Posted 3:57 AM 1/11/08
@caliaa: That's because the LHC was never fully operational this year.
ripfire
caliaa
Posted 3:56 AM 1/11/08
How come Hulu is more important than the LHC? Idiots! They're probably voting for Palin.
caliaa
mikeg1130
Posted 3:53 AM 1/11/08
@discounteggroll: I'm imagining something like those bullets from Mario. They always looked pissed off. Wouldn't be surprised to hear about one of them going postal.
mikeg1130
phryed
Posted 3:51 AM 1/11/08
i can't wait to get some Memristors in the lab.
And seriously 'World's Fastest Computer' is that some kinda joke?
phryed
discounteggroll
Posted 3:50 AM 1/11/08
8. Bullets That Shoot Bullets
and why was this not posted on the 'Giz? Come on fellas, quit dropping the ball
discounteggroll
rockmanx9
Posted 3:47 AM 1/11/08
1/2 of these stuff are not inventions hahaha
rockmanx9
LiquidGravity
Posted 4:34 AM 1/11/08
@rockmanx9: Yeah some people can't tell the difference between a new invention and a new design.
LiquidGravity
EricAlder
Posted 4:32 AM 1/11/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude: [instantrimshot.com]
EricAlder
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 4:24 AM 1/11/08
@Curves: From here to Paternity...
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 4:23 AM 1/11/08
@tande04: So it's a Matryoshka doll gone ballistic?
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
EricAlder
Posted 4:22 AM 1/11/08
P.S. - 'Great Pumpkinator' would have been better!
EricAlder
EricAlder
Posted 4:15 AM 1/11/08
How'd they miss THIS???
[www.reuters.com]
EricAlder
ScruffytheJanitor
Posted 4:14 AM 1/11/08
how is the tesla roadster there but not the Aptera?
Also, #38? Wtf (note, that's a who not a what) gives a flying eff about baseball anymore anyway? Lame. Boring. Drags on and on(that's what she said). If you have a pot belly and don't play contact, your "sport" isn't athletic enough to count. Nobody cares anymore.
ScruffytheJanitor
discounteggroll
Posted 4:12 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine:
BSOD's aren't invented silly, they're born
discounteggroll
ShabazOSU
Posted 4:50 AM 1/11/08
@ScruffytheJanitor:
You don't like America's Past Time?
I feel sorry for you... you sould like a nascar fan.
ShabazOSU
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the
Posted 4:35 AM 1/11/08
@caliaa: Unless the LHC can show me episodes of House or The Office that I missed, I'm afraid it's world-sucking black hole vortex-o-tron particle acceleratitudinator can take a hike.
Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Posted 5:23 AM 1/11/08
@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!: Think of it more as a time-release capsule of awesomeness.
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!
Posted 5:21 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine:
I changed my name and my avatar for Halloween, but of course it isn't showing yet :-(
LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!
tande04
Posted 5:18 AM 1/11/08
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another du...: No, its a patriot system for RPGs and other small ordinance.
tande04
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
Posted 5:12 AM 1/11/08
@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!: Shucks I forgot! OK, replace #1 with that put other as #2 then we have 51.
Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine
LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!
Posted 5:05 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...:
Well I'm flattered with the reference but I would have though it would be Lindsay Joy in person...
::crys!::
LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 5:49 AM 1/11/08
@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M and its Snowing Leopards!: You were invented? Does that mean there are more LindsayJoy fembots rolling off the assembly line in some secret factory somewhere?
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Roast Beef
Posted 5:36 AM 1/11/08
How did the Tesla Roadster make it to the list? It was "invented" in 2006. If they're going for release date which was indeed 2008, then the Volt can't be on the list. Mmmmm nitpicking.
Roast Beef
GadgetPlay
Posted 5:33 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...:
Fuck Clippy, Midget Wrestling FTW!!!
GadgetPlay
The Chad
Posted 5:32 AM 1/11/08
@ScruffytheJanitor: the aptera is in there. #46
The Chad
GadgetPlay
Posted 5:28 AM 1/11/08
@caliaa: Sorry. 100% Obama. How many times was he on their cover?
GadgetPlay
Lindsay 'Can you say yes Mistress' Joy's Dominatrix Avatar
Posted 5:27 AM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning an...:
I told you about the activity window!
I need to punish you.
Lindsay 'Can you say yes Mistress' Joy's Dominatrix Avatar
Duc
Posted 6:06 AM 1/11/08
@phryed: Relative term. The Giga-Flop and Tera-Flop were once big deals.
Duc
EricAlder
Posted 6:16 AM 1/11/08
I can't believe there's nothing EDIBLE on that list - Krispy Kreme donuts were invented too, y'know!
EricAlder
Gann
Posted 7:02 AM 1/11/08
@mikeg1130: HAHA! Not a bad idea for a costume.
Gann
TheLostVikings
Posted 2:46 PM 1/11/08
@discounteggroll: lol the crazy multi stage bullets from Wanted was the first that came to mind.
TheLostVikings
ValentinaLachesis
Posted 9:52 PM 1/11/08
@Kaiser 'The Undead Cookie Brought to Life With Lightning and the Souls of Insane Cannibalistic Orphans' Machead: Hulu only works in the United States. Atleast the LHC can create black holes outside of the US.
ValentinaLachesis
TF2Soldier914
Posted 1:35 PM 3/11/08
Camera for the blind?
TF2Soldier914