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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Win a trip to space - the result

Human inventiveness is alive and well, judging by the entries to the win-a-trip-to-space competition. More than 2400 would-be astronauts entered, giving answers characterised by passion, ingenuity and not a little straw-clutching.

It is astonishing how much emotion the humble paper clip can provoke. Certainly it is a simple, practical design, and some people think civilisation would crumble without it. Post-it notes and Blu Tack are similarly lauded for keeping our lives in order. Other popular choices include the biro, for doing what it's supposed to do cheaply and reliably, the PC and the internet for changing our lives so dramatically, and the flush toilet, for improving sanitation, human comfort and for providing a place of solitude in a chaotic world.

For cheek, Maeve Regan deserves a mention for nominating duct tape and the lubricant WD-40. "If it doesn't move and it should, go with the WD-40," she advises. "If it moves and it shouldn't, tape it up." Wise words, no doubt, but there is one too many inventions in her answer. Let's also dispense with venetian blinds (without them it would be curtains for us all): their advocates would do well to find a new jokes website.

The left field is well represented. The Odyssey Gyro is a device used by bicycle stunt riders: it lets them spin their handlebars without tangling their brake cables. It's ingenious, but definitely niche.

More widespread but still on the obscure side are aglets, the caps on the ends of shoelaces that stop them fraying. Even shoes themselves are proposed for services to human mobility. Then there is the keystroke sequence control-alt-delete, that panacea for frustrated PC users.

For passion, it is hard to match Dillon Hayes's selection of the electric guitar: "whatever your taste in music it's hard to deny the powerful imagery and sounds generated by man and his axe". Of the many rhyming entries, this from Lydia Houghton stood out:

How many calories in a tin of Spam?
What's the time in Vietnam?
Should I worry about getting rabies?
Who invented jelly babies?
And so it goes until you discover why these questions are being asked:
Who, what, where, when, how or why?
Finding out is as easy as pie
For answers in life and comprehension
The search engine is the best patented invention

A great entry, if only that last line had scanned...

And so to inventions that have unequivocally changed the course of history. Believe it or not, the wheel was patented in Australia in 2001. While it is hard to believe there was no "prior art" in Australia before the third millennium, there are examples from other countries dating back many centuries. The Gutenberg printing press was praised for spreading information to the masses. But Gutenberg created his machine about a decade before the first patent was awarded in 1449 by King Henry VI of England.

Many entries focused on steam engines, ranging from Edward Somerset's 1663 model to James Watt's more efficient condensing engine, but none made a convincing case for novelty. Cameras gained support for recording historic events, personal moments and everything in between. Oral rehydration salts were a close-run thing: this simple mixture of salt and sugar saves millions of children a year from dying of diarrhoea. So too was the integrated circuit, which underpins so much of our modern world.

The winner chose an earlier transforming technology. Ian Anderson of Staffordshire, UK, opted for radio and gave it an out-of-this-world justification. You can read his entry here.

So, commiserations to all those who had high hopes for their entry and congratulations to Ian Anderson, who now joins the queue to become a pioneer among space tourists.

And the winner is...

Ian Anderson - Radio: the greatest patented invention of all time

While it is Nikola Tesla who is credited with the first US patent, number 645576, it was Guglielmo Marconi who is the best known radio pioneer and the most commercially successful. He invented his wireless telegraph machine based on the principles outlined by Tesla. Radio has since transformed our world, benefiting humanity in so many different ways. It was arguably a catalyst for some of the biggest technological advances in the 20th century: television, radar and mobile phones. Radio has widened our scientific horizons, giving us the tools to search for life outside our solar system.

It opened doors to understanding the chemical world via nuclear magnetic resonance, which was developed into 3D medical scanners. Of all the inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries it has done the most to promote world peace - helping to bring us closer together, bridging distances at the speed of light, and making the world seem much smaller than it actually is. It is our entertainment, our communication, our lifeline and the greatest patented invention of all time. One day it may also be our telephone to the stars.

Jeremy Webb, New Scientist Editor
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