The Best Inventions Of The Year

From the phone that has changed phones forever, to futuristic cars, to a building made of water, to a remote-controlled dragonfly—a dazzling display of ingenuity

—By Maryanne Murray Buechner, Kristina Dell, Andrea Dorfman, Lev Grossman, Anita Hamilton, Rebecca Winters Keegan, Jeffrey Kluger, Michael D. Lemonick, Coco Masters, Lisa McLaughlin, Alice Park, Julie Rawe and Deirdre van Dyk

Full List

Invention of the Year

  1. Invention Of the Year: The iPhone

Cars & Buses

  1. Autonomous Automobile
  2. Car, Compacted
  3. The Return of Steam
  4. Rubber Meets the Rail
  5. Take the High Road
  6. Tailpipe Dream

Aircraft

  1. Great Planes
  2. A Wing and a Prayer
  3. Enter the Dragon

Space

  1. Rocket Science
  2. Spandex Space Suit
  3. I Can See Clearly Now

Robots

  1. Weed 'Em and Reap
  2. A Robot You Can Relate To

Entertainment

  1. Don't Flinch
  2. Sound Tracker
  3. Reading Glasses

Law & Order

  1. Making the Car Chase Obsolete
  2. Blinded by the Light

Living

  1. The $1,000 Football Helmet
  2. An ATM for Books
  3. Good Morning, Sunshine

Environment

  1. Pretty Sweet
  2. Without a Trace
  3. Recovering Lost Oil
  4. Mighty Microbe
  5. Kicking Ash
  6. Snow Business
  7. Modern Marvels

Architecture

  1. Water Works
  2. Edifice Complex

Fashion

  1. Can You Feel Me?
  2. Hot or Not?
  3. No Regrets

Computers

  1. Bending Reality
  2. Size Matters
  3. Discard the Cord
  4. Flexible Fiber
  5. The $150 Laptop
  6. Take a Walk

Health

  1. Joint Venture
  2. Mouse Calls
  3. Blood Simple
  4. Healing Hand
  5. Cancer's Crystal Ball

Tech Buyer's Guide

  1. Do You Copy?
  2. This Big Audio's Dynamite
  3. Three of a Kind: LCD HDTVs
  4. Talk Is Cheap
  5. Heavy Hitter
  6. Three of a Kind: Digital Video Cameras
  7. Point and Shoot
  8. Bag Some Rays
  9. Three of a Kind: MP3 players
  10. String Theory
  11. Play Time
  12. Three of a Kind: Video Game Systems
  13. Powerhouse
  14. Game Face
  15. Net Worth
  16. Loosey Goosey
  17. Three of a Kind: Notebook Computers
  18. Good Call
  19. A Green Light
  20. Three of a Kind: Desktop Computers
  21. Back It Up

Gadget of the Year

  1. Apple iPhone
  2. Nikon Coolpix S51c
  3. Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Phone
  4. Palm Centro
  5. Sony Handycam HDR-CX7
  6. Samsung P2
  7. Toshiba Portégé R500-S5004
  8. FlyTech Dragonfly
  9. Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive
  10. Belkin N1 Vision Wi-Fi Router

Best Inventors

  1. Archimedes (circa 287-212 B.C.)
  2. Al-Jazari (circa A.D. 1150-1220)
  3. Euclid (circa 365-300 B.C.)
  4. Cai Lun (circa A.D. 50-121)
  5. Pythagoras (circa 580-500 B.C.)
  6. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
  7. Johannes Gutenberg (1452-1519)
  8. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
  9. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
  10. Alessandro Volta (1745-1827)
  11. Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
  12. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
  13. Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
  14. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
  15. Thomas Savery (1650-1715)
  16. Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833)
  17. Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
  18. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974)
  19. Arthur Fry (1931- ) & Spencer Silver (1941- )
  20. Percy Spencer (1894-1970)
  21. Henry Ford (1863-1947)
  22. Martin Cooper (1926- )
  23. Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973)
  24. Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)
  25. Jack Kilby (1923-2005)
  26. Gregory Pincus (1903-1967)
  27. Philo Farnsworth & Vladimir Zworykin
  28. Stephanie Kwolek (1923- )
  29. Tim Berners-Lee (1955- )
  30. Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) & Orville Wright (1871-1948)
  31. Alec Jeffreys (1950- )
  32. Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913-1988)
  33. Ian Wilmut (1944- ) & Keith Campbell (1954- )

Viewpoint

  1. Warren Buffett, Adjust My Bra
  2. How We Chose the List

Gadget Poll Results

  1. Gadget of the Year Poll Results

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