What is the important invention in the twentieth century

The 10 Top inventions of the 20th and 21st centuries

The initial part of the 21st century has been the stage of major technological inventions that have changed significantly humankind daily lives. Things happen at an incredible speed. The world has become a global “village”, where everything is a “click” away.

This article main goal is to highlight the top ten inventions that irreversibly changed the way humanity lives.

Obviously there are a plethora of inventions that one could mention here; however I want to restrict this article to those that had the greatest impact.

In order to understand the changes occurred in the first part of the 21st century, it is important also to highlight the top ten inventions of the 20th century (again it could be much more than ten), because there can be no doubt that the twentieth century is one of the most remarkable, in human history, for its previously unparalleled rate of technological advances and scientific discoveries. A rate that continues to this day, one might add.

It is important to provide a timeline for both centuries, to help us situate in time; thus, it is considered as the 20th century, the period between 1 January 1901 and 31 December 2000 and the 21st century comprises the period that started on January 1st, 2001 and it will end on December 31st, 2100.

I will start with the top ten of the 20th century and then the top ten of the current century.

1. Radio

Not many people can appreciate the impact the advent of radio had on 20th century. Besides the obvious novelty of allowing people to be heard from hundreds or even thousands miles away without the use of a wire, it was the center of family life through the end of the Second World War into the doldrums of the fifties, when it was steadily replaced by television. Currently, its use is restricted to cars as a mean to prevent drivers from falling asleep behind the wheel.

2. Internet

Computer rendered the typewriter obsolete and made hand-typing a thing of the past; however internet was what made the computers to become the “monster” that it is today. Everything can happen with internet: one can buy/sell; get to know what is happening across the other side of the world, start a revolution, change mindsets, spread lies; have a social life. There are endless possibilities.

3. Television

Somebody called it “Society’s babysitter” and I completely agree. For most of us, television it is the only company one has, and despite the sadness of this argument, this is more common than one might think!! I guess it would very hard for a lot of people to live without the magic tube. Unfortunately!!

4. Antibiotics

Up until Alexander Fleming discovery of penicillin, everything could be fatal for human race, bug wise. Since then, and after the discovery of a whole range of antibiotics, death due to bacterial infection became extremely rare, which increased hugely humankind life span.

5. The Submarine

Although submergible vessels had been used in the past, it was not until the 20th century that the modern submarine came into scene.

6. Rocketry

While the rocket was first invented and used by the Chinese over three thousand years ago—and used occasionally by the Greeks and Romans since —it wasn’t until the twentieth century that it came into its own and became more than just a dazzling amusement or a largely harmless but still effective “terror weapon” for ancient armies. In the twentieth century, rockets became bigger and more powerful. Most importantly, they became controllable, which suddenly made them useful both as weapons of war and, even more vitally, as our means of accessing outer space. Without the rocket, it is safe to say we would not only have never gone to the moon or visited every planet in our solar system. Rockets also place satellites into orbit around our planet, so without them we also wouldn’t be able to use GPS, predict the weather, make international calls or, for the most part, even use our cell phones much of the time.

7. Automobile

Once the automobiles came into scene in the 20th century it changed completely people’s mobility. The main responsible for the spreading of this mean of transportation was Henri Ford’s assembly line production style, which made cars affordable to almost every purse.

8. Airplane

This revolutionary mean of transportation made travelling much quicker and safer, as well as revolutionized warfare, sped-up package deliveries and made fire-combating more effective.

9. Personal Computer

It’s difficult to imagine our world today without computers. Of course, they have been around since World War Two, but they were clunky, massively expensive things that had all the calculating power of a brick. When Steve Wozniak and Stephen Jobs introduced the Apple in 1976, however, it changed everything and the rest is, as they say, history. Today, of course, they are everywhere and we have become so dependent upon them that many people almost feel naked without one. For some, they even provide the very means of maintaining a livelihood: we use them to keep track of our finances, write books, design logos and sell real estate. Plus, they are rapidly replacing the stereo and television in their ability to entertain us with music, movies, and games.”

10. Nuclear Power

Nuclear power was to the twentieth century what steam power had been to the nineteenth: a game changer. Suddenly humanity had a power source that didn’t pollute, was efficient and practically unlimited, and so had the potential to change the planet overnight. Unfortunately, it was a two-edged sword in that this same energy source could be used to create the most destructive weapons in history, threatening human survival with its very presence. Additionally, while nuclear power plants didn’t spew pollutants into the air, in the hands of the truly incompetent they had the capacity to render whole regions radioactive and, as such, uninhabitable for generations (as was demonstrated at Chernobyl in 1986).

However, it is hard to deny the overall positive impact nuclear power has had. The fear of mutually assured destruction probably prevented the world from experiencing a third world war and, when operated safely, nuclear power plants truly are a superb and cost-efficient energy source that has the capacity to power entire cities.

1.Hydrogen Powered Cars

It is hard to imagine that cars as we know them will be out of use anytime soon; however they will soon be overcome by electrical cars & hybrids. If so, it will completely change the statistics of planet Earth pollution. Advantage: use hydrogen in the combustion chamber and leave only water vapor. Disadvantage: Might be very costly for day-to-day use.

2. Robotics

It is a branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation and application of robots. It is something that the modern scientist community has been working for quite a while now. It is a fact that robots are becoming more and more capable of performing certain tasks that were previously only carried out by humans. This can have a huge impact in the very fabric of modern societies, at all levels!

3. Automation

Predictions say that by the end of the 21st century, your house, car, refrigerator and anything else you can think of, will be smarter than you and will be capable of carrying out nearly any task you might have in mind. This invention is walking hand in hand with the previous one. Let’s hope humans will be capable to have the last word, all throughout this huge technological advances.

4. Anti-Gravity

If one speak about the facts of classical physics, this invention sounds like a lot of rubbish, because it is a fact that magnetic monopoles (magnets that have only one pole) cannot exist; however it is very likely that this will be doable in another seventy year or so. Then we will say goodbye to wheels and everybody will be riding in a cushion of magnetic fields.

5. Cloning of Humans

Scientists have made possible the impossible feat of copying humans. After a few experiments and alterations with genes, scientists have found out the way by which one can grow new organs and even a complete new human. Life spans of two hundred or three hundred years might be within reach.

6. Nanotechnology

Undoubtedly this is the most fascinating advent in the field of technology. It deals with the extremely small microscopic particles which are so fine that they can be injected into the system and repairs can be done to the human organs. We are not there yet but the prospects for it are great.

7. Artificial Intelligence

It is one thing to make a robot do a daily chore around the house, it is a quite another to get it to think about what is the best way to carry out that task. Artificial intelligence will enable machines to be able to learn, plan, decide, compare among other things.

8. Free Energy

The holy grail of science has been the acquisition of energy that comes from non-polluting sources (i.e. oil, natural gas, coal, etc.). By the end of the century it is very likely that the dream will become a reality. However, it will come from several sources and in very different ways. Geo-thermal, wind, biomass, clean coal, nuclear and solar energy will be a part of the change, but other more exotic technologies may also emerge – technologies such as fusion and zero-point energy generators, either of which would provide an inexhaustible source of non-polluting, non-radioactive energy.

9. Hypersonic Transportation

The way we travel by aircraft has completely changed in the current century. This is mainly to do with the outstanding developments that have occurred in the area of hypersonic transportation. We have at our disposal planes and trains that almost equal the speed of light. With proper development of the technology it is not far away when we will seriously be able to travel all the countries of the world in just 80 days, like Willy Fogg!

10. Genetic Engineering

This is without a question, the next step in human development. Tailor-made human beings and animals will be a possibility in a near future.

When one takes a look at the list and compares where it started with where it finished, one starts wondering where it is going to end!!

There is no stopping progress!!

Is it all on behalf of humankind welfare?

Well, let’s say that there were some inventions that I much rather they were left undiscovered!

9 Inventions from the 21st Century That Are Still Shaping Our World Today

The 21st century has been an exciting time for those of us who dabble or are simply interested in the realms of technology. If you were born in any of the previous decades, you have had the opportunity to bear witness to some of the most important innovations and advancements in human history.

The start of the 21st century was met with fear and a lot of unknowns. You probably remember Y2K. Thankfully the world did not end at the turn of the century, but the 19 years following would go on to be crucial. What is even more interesting about this time period is the fact that the inventions from previous decades finally took off in the 21st century.

Over the months, we have explored crucial inventions from each decade that would eventually go on to change the world and our lives.

As you probably guessed, today we are going to continue that tradition and take a brief look at some of the inventions from the 21st century. What makes this time period so different and equally exciting is that there are a good amount of inventions from this time period that are controversial, compared to previous time periods in human history. Yet, there is a good chance you can not live without some of these inventions on this list.

1. Social Media

Ok, let’s start with the more obvious and controversial one, social media. You might have grown tired of seeing your friends’ countless posts or the constant threats to your own privacy but at one point social media held a truly exciting promise, to connect people across the world. Tools like Friendster and MySpace entered the scene in 2002 and 2003 respectively, opening the doors for the eventual giant Facebook.

Social media is everywhere. There is a good chance that you read this post from our social media page. Social media does connect people and businesses across continents, is a hub for both great and useless information, and has even been a stage for major political movements.

Just to put everything into scale, there are currently 7.5 billion people on this planet and 2.89 billion of them can be found on some sort of social media platform. Social media is going to be around for a while.

2. Multi-use rockets

Hate him or love him, Elon Musk has made some tremendous contributions to our planet. His company SpaceX has gone on to develop rockets that can be recovered and reused for other launches. It was in 2017 when SpaceX became the first to use one of these rockets again for another mission.

3. The Capsule Endoscopy

All thanks to massive advancements in light-emitting electrodes, image sensors, and optical design in the 90s, the capsule endoscopy was able to be created. First used in 2001, the technology uses a tiny wireless camera the size of a common pill. This allows doctors to explore and examine the human body, specifically the digestive system, to identify any potential internal bleeding, inflammation, or cancerous tumors.

4. Blockchain Technology

Now the idea of a blockchain did not first appear in 2008. In fact, Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta first envisioned the idea in 1991. However, it was not until the emergence of Bitcoin in 2008 when blockchain technology truly became relevant. People around the world are excited about blockchain as it has the potential to change industries outside of the cryptocurrency world.

5. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

Remember last year when you could not go one day without seeing or hearing about cryptocurrencies? Bitcoin’s unprecedented rise in value force the world to pay attention to these decentralized tools. There were previous attempts to create cryptocurrencies in the late 90s, but it was the mysterious Mr. Nakamoto and his creation of Bitcoin that would go on to become a staple of culture.

Cryptocurrencies are already changing the way we conduct financial transactions offering a transparent, secure, and decentralized way to conduct business.

6. Mobile Operating Systems

Imagine where you would be without that smooth and easy to use operating systems found on your phone. Whether you love Android or Apple’s iOS, operating systems change your mobile device’s interface for the better, opening the doors to better user experiences and greater technological advances.

7. 3D Printing

One of our personal favorites, 3D printing has a lot of hype around it because of its potential to disrupt everything from the food industry to the aerospace industry. In fact, there are a lot of examples of how that has already begun. Now, 3D printing is not completely new to the 21st century.

In fact, the application of the layering method you see on today’s 3D printers can be traced back to the 19th century and 3D printing officially began in 1980. Yet, cheaper manufacturing methods and open-source software have contributed to a revolution in 3D printing. If you wanted to 3D print something back in the day it was going to set you back thousands of dollars. Now you can buy a 3D printer at home for your desktop.

8. Gene Editing/CRISPR

The fascinating thing about gene editing is that it has played a big role in various aspects of science fiction before coming into fruition. Back in 2012, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and a separate team from Harvard, as well as the Broad Institute, independently discovered the power of the bacterial immune system known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats or CRISPR.

CRISPR can be used as a powerful gene-editing tool to make drastic changes to an organisms’ DNA. CRISPR could eventually be used to eradicate major diseases and even be used to edit humans for reproductive purposes, opening the doors to many ethical questions.

9. The Internet of Things

This is probably another buzzword that you hear thrown around a lot. Originally conceived towards the end of 1999 by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, we would go on to see the real application of IoT in our consumer devices and appliances in the 21s century. Yet, the IoT has the potential to unlock the “fourth industrial revolution” driving innovation in places like artificial intelligence and robotics.

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Transistors: The Greatest Invention of the 20th Century

Let’s talk about turning Sand into “Gold.”

“I would say that hardware is the bone of the head, the skull. The semiconductor is the brain within the head. The software is the wisdom and data is the knowledge.”

D id you know that a half-trillion-dollar industry uses beach sand as a raw ingredient? — The very same sand kids play with, and adults lay on to catch some sun rays.

This gigantic industry is known as the Semiconductor Industry. If you are not familiar with the term ‘Semiconductor,’ maybe you’ve heard the term ‘Transistor’? If not, then, for sure, you know what a ‘CPU’ is.

I will introduce the invention and the terms and then dive in and show how raw sand is being transformed into a CPU, i.e., “Gold.” The same processing unit sets inside your Computer or Smartphone, empowering all the magic happing on its screen.

The most important invention of the 20th century

“Necessity is the mother of Invention” — Plato.

Behind each invention, there is a concealed necessity; In the case of the transistors, the need was very pressing.

The world needed a tiny device that could switch quickly between conducting to insulating state — and that was required to generate streams of binary digits 0/1, where 0 means that the device is insulating, i.e., is outputting a 0, and 1 means that the device is conducting, i.e., is outputting a 1.

Picture it this way.

To generate a binary number, e.g., ‘101010’ that could be translated at the end of its journey through your device to any color, number, or letter you see on the screen — A switch is needed to output a ‘1’, then a ‘0’, then a ‘1’ again, and so on, until the required number ‘101010’ is entirely generated.

How did semiconductors come to the rescue? Read on to find out.

What is a Semiconductor?

While metals are excellent conductors and will be continuously conducting electricity, plastic, on the contrary, is an insulator and will not be conducting any electricity at all.

A semiconductor is a mix(hence it is a ‘Semi’ conductor); it can be both. And altering some of its properties will turn it from an insulator to a conductor and vice versa.

To add some clarity, suppose we use silicon(a semiconductor) to conduct electricity — Then, by default, it would be insulating; however, it becomes a conductor when we add the right amount of heat to it.

And that is briefly the superpower of semiconductors.

What is a Transistor?

Heating is not the only way to turn a semiconductor into a full conductor.

For instance, silicon can be doped with Phosphorus/Boron, and doping will alter its characteristics in a way that applying a small amount of voltage to the right places would turn it from an insulator to a conductor.

There are two types of doping, n-type and p-type, where n and p stand for negative and positive; furthermore, by taking pure Silicon and injecting Phosphorus into the two green regions(see the figure below), we create two n-doped regions, since Phosphorus has one extra electron in its atom.

Similarly, by injecting Boron into pure Silicon(see the red region in the figure below), we create a p-doped region since Boron has one less electron in its atom.

And finally, without any voltage applied to the base(see figure below), due to the reverse biasing caused by the p–n junction, i.e., the boundary between the n-doped and p-doped regions, the current will be blocked, and the transistor will act as an insulator.

However, applying a positive voltage to the base would result in forward biasing, which turns the transistor into a conductor.

On December 23, 1947, the transistor was successfully demonstrated at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

But what about turning Sand into “Gold,” you might be wondering!

Let me show you how it’s done.

Related terms

Semiconductor fabs

Semiconductor fabs(semiconductor fabrication plants — see figure below) are enormous factories requiring many expensive tools and devices to complete the microelectronics fabrication process.

Roughly speaking, a fab can cost between 3 to 20 billion dollars as of 2020.

Cleanroom

The central part of a fab is the cleanroom(see figure below). Cleanrooms typically have a very high level of cleanliness, quantified by the number of particles(e.g., dust) per cubic meter.

FOUP(Front Opening Unified Pod) — FOUPs can load up to 25 wafers.

And finally, let’s see the process.

From Sand to “Gold”

Step #1: Raw Sand

Silicon Dioxide is a natural compound of silicon and oxygen found mostly in Sand. Furthermore, this compound is the base ingredient for semiconductors manufacturing.

Step #2: Silicon Ingot

Sand is being transformed into Poly Silicon by means of a complex reduction and purification process, then to meet semiconductor manufacturing standards, chemical and physical methods are applied to turn it into a crystalline form, i.e., a purified monocrystal ingot(99.9999999% pure, one alien atom for every 1 billion silicon atoms).

The Ingot is then sliced into round wafers(see figure below). Usually, the size of one wafer would be 150/200/300mm. These wafers will become the substrate, i.e., the platform, for microchip development.

Step #4: Fabrication

The fabrication process will take place inside a semiconductor fab; Transistors will be created as the smallest control unit in a microchip.

During the process, FOUPs full of wafers will automatically go through plenty of steps, entering a tool after a tool. And each tool will follow a specified recipe.

Once the process is over, many patterned layers of various materials will be accumulated on the wafer surface.

Here’re some of the steps performed during the fabrication process:

Polish: The surface of the wafer is oxidized at 1000 degrees to produce a non-conductive layer.

Photoresist: Photoresist material(light-sensitive material) is uniformly distributed across the wafer’s surface using centrifugal force.

Photomask: A mask is used to filter the UV light projected onto the surface of the wafer so that only the places that are supposed to be etched(removed) would be exposed to light.

Etching: Etching(removing) the exposed areas.

Doping: n-type or p-type doping, using Ion implantation process to shot atoms into specific regions.

Metal Layers: Metal layers are created to interconnect the transistors’ gates to develop the expected binary logic, i.e., functionality.

The fabrication process is repeated many times.

Step #5: Microchips(“Gold”)

Once microchips are fully fabricated, the wafer can finally be sliced into small rectangular slices. Each slice is basically the microchip that will be integrated inside a CPU or a memory, etc.

Finally, the product will be packaged and ready to be shipped to customers.

The takeaway

Roughly speaking, the 10-nanometre transistors are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. The US Department of Energy has recently created the world’s smallest transistor with a working one-nanometre gate, about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.

With this huge advancement since 1947, coupled with the other revolutions in the fields of AI, Machine learning, and robotics, The sky is getting closer 🙂

This article is the first in a series of three articles:

⚫ Transistors: The Greatest Invention of the 20th Century.

The Greatest Inventions In The Past 1000 Years

This article was written in the year 2000.

During the technology feeding frenzy of the late 1990s many experts declared the Internet one of the most important inventions since the Industrial Revolution. However, after the happenings of the past few years that perspective has changed. While the Internet and the World Wide Web have certainly impacted the lives of many millions of people it is certainly not the greatest invention of the past millennium, in fact it might not even make the the top ten.

As Robert J. Gordon writes, «Internet surfing may be fun, but it represents a far smaller increment in the standard of living than achieved by the extension of day into night achieved by electric light, the revolution in factory efficiency achieved by the electric motor, the flexibility and freedom achieved by the automobile, the saving of time and shrinking of the globe achieved by the airplane, the new materials achieved by the chemical industry, the first sense of live two-way communication achieved by the telephone, the arrival of live news and entertainment into the family parlor achieved by radio and then television, and the enormous improvements in life expectancy, health, and comfort achieved by urban sanitation and indoor plumbing.» What are the greatest inventions of the past 1000 years? If we use as the prime criteria ‘improving the standard of living’, the author presents (with temerity) the following top 10 list:

Edge Foundation, Inc., «What Is The Most Important Invention In The Past Two Thousand Years?»

Gordon, Robert J. Does the «New Economy» Measure up to the Great Inventions of the Past? NBER Working Paper No.w7833 Issued in August 2000

Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century National Academy of Engineering http://www.greatachievements.org/

Platt, Richard. Smithsonian Visual Timeline of Inventions. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1994.