As 2008 is coming to an end, I start listing down the bests in my field of interests. First up are the top innovations that make it to
Time’s prestigious list this year:
1.
The Retail DNA Test In the past, only élite researchers had access to genetic fingerprints, but now personal genotyping is available to anyone who orders the service online and mails in a spit sample. We are at the beginning of a personal-genomics revolution that will transform not only how we take care of ourselves but also what we mean by personal information.
2. The Tesla Roadster
Tesla Roadster is a battery-powered sports car that is environmentally friendly, quiet, clean and definitely sexy.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (lro), the first moonship to be launched by NASA in 2009 will study the things lunar orbiters always study — gravity, temperature — but it will also look for signs of water ice, a vital resource for any future lunar base, and compile detailed 3-D lunar maps, including all six Apollo landing sites.
Hulu is a hub for network TV shows and movies. (It’s not available in the Philippines yet.. but hopefully sooner though.)
The mammoth machine will send protons wheeling in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light, then smash them together at 6,000 times a second to try to answer such deep questions as why mass exists and whether the universe has extra dimensions.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is where the collections of native seeds from almost every nation are kept so that local crops can be replanted in case of an agricultural disaster.
7.
The Chevy Volt
Chevy's Volt is an electric motor with a battery that can provide up to 40 miles of range on a single charge.
Raytheon's APS will automatically detect an incoming round and then launch a missile to destroy it, all within a split second.
9.
The Orbital Internet
In space, no one can hear you scream but you will be able to send e-mail, thanks to a new protocol being developed for use there.
10.
The World's Fastest Computer
Roadrunner is a supercomputer built by IBM for Los Alamos National Laboratory, will be used primarily to simulate the effects of aging on nuclear weapons.
11.
Green Crude
It's energy-dense, portable and (relatively) cheap.
12.
Housing Funds
MacroMarkets offers the first exchange-traded funds — bought and sold like stocks — that will allow buyers to bet on whether house prices will rise or fall.
13.
The Memristor
Memristor, a new kind of circuit that possibly flicks on a computer instantly, like a lightbulb, with no boot-up required.
14.
The Bionic Hand
It's multi-articulating, meaning each finger has its own motor.
The world's first moving skyscraper located in Dubai.
18.
The New Mars Rover
It runs on a chunk of plutonium and carries scientific instruments, including a neutron gun — for firing at the ground to detect permafrost.
The modular bike-rack stations are Web-enabled and solar-powered.
The Sims is a game about everyday life in suburbia.
21.
The Synthetic Organism
It will make possible to mix and match genomes to generate an endless list of organisms that can perform all sorts of molecular magic, from turning sugar into fuel or digesting oil spills in oceans to even churning out cures for disease.
Le Project Triangle is a slender glass-and-steel triangle, like a shark fin, that they say won't cast shadows on surrounding streets.
23.
The Branded Candidate
Barack Obama's political stardom has devised a system to make and sell your own swag and garner millions in profits.
A prototype "bionic" contact lens that creates a display over the wearer's visual field, so images, maps, data, etc., appear to float in midair.
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.
In order to show the cars in Speed Racer zooming past Hawaiian sunrises and around alpine mountains, a still photographer snapped the locales from every angle and then digitally stitched the shots together to create "bubbles" or virtual photo-realistic backgrounds.
Scientists at UC Berkeley have taken a major step toward making Harry Potter's disguise of choice a reality.
Searching for higher and higher Mersenne primes is the unofficial national sport of mathematicians.
30.
The Internet of Things
A kind of network that will allow sensor-enabled physical objects — appliances in your home, products in a factory, cars in a city — to talk to one another, the same way people communicate over the Internet.
An eco-friendly refrigerator which instead of cooling the interior of the refrigerator with freon — a serious contributor to global warming — its design uses ammonia, butane and water.
A highly restricted Facebook-style website that's designed to encourage the sharing of ideas and information among members of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and the U.S.'s 13 other intelligence services.
34.
Made-in-Transit Packaging
Packaging in which food can keep growing during shipping to the supermarket so that it arrives ready to be harvested, in a state of optimum freshness.
Flying wind turbines that could harness the jet stream.
36.
The New Ping-Pong Serve
Crouching to table-level, peers over the paddle and executes a hand dance before launching the ball at your opponent, who is probably too dumbfounded to respond.
The smog-eating cement is called TX Active that is mixed with in an agent called a photo-catalyzer (titanium dioxide) which speeds up the natural process that breaks down smog into its component parts.
Using ballpark monitors, umps can review a play from every possible angle to eliminate doubts on controversial home-run calls.
A technique developed for analyzing fingerprints on a gun after it's been wiped clean.
40.
The Seven New Deadly Sins
In March the Vatican updated the traditional seven deadly sins with seven new social sins, to bring the list into line with the temptations of the modern world. The additions: bioethical sins, morally dubious experiments that harm human embryos, drug abuse, polluting, social injustice, accumulating excessive wealth and creating poverty.
41.
The Peraves MonoTracer
A vehicle that combines the lithe maneuverability of a motorcycle with the not-getting-rained-on-ability of a conventional automobile.
42.
Disemvoweling
Incredibly annoying comments on blogs can be rendered as less obnoxious by simply removing the vowels from posts, a process known as disemvoweling.
43.
High-Tech Running Shoes
Nike and Adidas continued their long-running battle for sneaker supremacy this year. Nike unleashed its Zoom Victory track spike (right), with a paper-thin surface that snugs runners like a second skin. Meanwhile, Adidas, working in tandem with Porsche Design, engineered the Porsche Design Sport Bounce running shoe. It features metallic springs that cushion the foot, making your run as smooth as a ride in a high-end sports car.
44.
Sunscreen for Plants
Purshade, a new SPF-45 spray, forms a film of microscopic mirror-like prisms over growing fruits and veggies to reflect harmful UV rays while letting the good light pass through. Result: higher yields and better-quality food.
This new term describes a rare but growing option for homeowners struggling to make payments on a house now worth less than when they bought it: another new lender agrees to rewrite the loan tied to a fresh appraisal.
The Aptera is one of the first eco-friendly cars to get high mileage: the all-electric model gets 120 miles (193 km) per charge, and the hybrid gets 300 (483).
The self-sufficient floating data center patented by Google in which the electricity is provided by wind turbines and wave-powered generators.
48.
The Time Eater Clock
The handless, numberless Corpus Clock is designed to express time's irrevocability.
49.
Sound-Enhanced Food
Experimenting with how sound affects taste, chef Heston Blumenthal found that playing a recording of breaking waves makes an oyster taste 30% saltier than the same food eaten to the noise of barnyard animals.
50.
A Camera for the Blind
Paradoxical as it sounds, the Touch Sight camera makes it possible for the visually impaired to take pictures. The photographer holds the camera up to his or her forehead, and a Braille-like screen on the back makes a raised image of whatever the lens sees.
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