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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
26. The Speedo LZR Racer
Ninety-four percent. That's the percentage of Olympic swimming races won in Beijing by athletes wearing the LZR, a second-skin suit that's the first to be made with ultrasonically bonded seams. The LZR, which was co-designed by nasa experts, comes with a built-in corset to improve buoyancy and is constructed with compression fabric that keeps muscles from vibrating in the water. All of which was enough to ensure victory for Michael Phelps a history-making eight times including a 0.01-sec. win in the 100-m butterfly. Phelps, however, was wearing only the bottom half of the suit (to keep his shoulders from being constricted), while the silver medalist had donned the full-body version. Which makes you wonder just how much faster he might have gone ...
See pictures of the 2008 Olympics.
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