TIME's Best Inventions of 2008
From a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world's first moving skyscraper — here are TIME's picks for the top innovations of 2008
17. The Mobile, Dexterous, Social Robot
Nexi is the first of a new class of robot being developed at MIT's Media Lab and referred to as MDS, which stands for mobile, dexterous, social. Nexi can, or eventually will be able to, move around on wheels (hence mobile), and it can pick up objects (dexterous). But its most striking feature is its humanlike, albeit creepy, face, which can express a startling range of emotions (social).
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