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Now feel free to ignore this thread because I know I hate doing someone else's homework.
I'm writing an essay on what I believe to be the invention of the last 50 years that has made the most impact on the world and why.
Now, I've at least narrowed my topic down to medical. (Makes since, I work in Oncology). I want to think of something creative, something not so overused like, Penicillin.
I can think of the why if I could just get my brainstorming into gear.
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From what I read, it completely bypasses the damaged part of the ear and sends signals directly to the auditory nerve.
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Here's a link to the cochlear implant page at the National Institutes of Health web site. cochlear implantsPosts: 4569 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I woudn't use that, as it has only been out for a few years, and not everyone likes it or will use it because ut is so limited.
I would use computers in the medical field, perhaps, because of the major differences they have made not only in hospitals but in creating new treatments.
Keeping teh focus on the medical field will help narrow it down too. Take a look at some of the new targeted gene threapies....none of those would have been possible without computer tech to decode the human genome.
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I forgot to mention something. The invention must have been made in the past 50 years. Sorry, I forgot about that.
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Derrell, that sounds like a really good one, espeically since we use those on a daily basis in our office.
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Other contenders: Velcro. Artificial insulin and/or the recently developed insulin pump. Fiber optics, especially cameras.
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I would say microsoft windows. Why? Because it brought computers to the masses. I think making computers easy to use, and common in households has completely changed our way of life. Even those who don't use computers in their own houses benifit from them (ie: public services like banks, libraries, hospitals frequently use windows).
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I think it's hard to make a case for something not computer-related...the internet, the microprocesser, PCs, software, whatever. Is there anything developed in the past 50 years that has affected life in so many different ways? If you want, you could use as one of your examples the medical field... for instance, the huge amount of health information availble to the masses on the web.
You don't have to think computers are the greatest thing in the world... but they have had the largest impact. The cochlear implant, while important to those with hearing loss, certainly doesn't affect as many people as computers do.
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Organ transplants? Limb reimplantation? Blood transfusions? Chemotherapy? (dunno about the dates of invention/discovery on those, just tossing out ideas)
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A lot of people don't like the implants because they don't mirror true hearing...there are a majority of sounds that can't be reproduced with them. It may improve in the future, but as of right now I don't think it qualifies.
I would do an overview of computers in the medical field...think of all the devices we now use to monitor patients. All of them depend on computers to work. CAT scans, MRI's, Digital Radiography, cameras that allow doctors to see inside a patient without cutting them wide open (that would be fiber optics, although the cameras are sometimes coordinated with computers)...
Not to mention gene replacement therapies, targeted treatments for cancer (developed with computer models), the first treatments that allow Parkinson Disease to be slowed rather than just masking the symptoms....
The list goes on and on....
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How about Xerox? Didn't they pioneer windows? I am not sure how accurate Pirates of Silicon Valley is, but I remember a contention that Gates stole Windows from Xerox. I think that would be fun to research and present.
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They came up with the first true GUI...but it was Steve Jobs that took their idea, not Gates, and ran with it. Xerox didn't care...they had had the idea pitched to them several times, and their attitude was "Who cares, it wouldn't really be good for anything..."...
To be honest, the people who invented it didn't really have a grasp of what it was for, or what the true ramifications if it were. No one did, really, it was too far ahead of it's time. They envisioned a computer using a GUI to run a kitchen, or other household appliances, and that is how they pitched it.
Still, as far as dropping the ball goes in the computer world goes, the only thing that even begins to compete with Xeroxes stupidity is the guys who sold Gates DOS...
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Heart-lung machines, pacemakers, chemotherapy (already mentioned), synthetic insulin . . . there are so many I can't even list them all right now.
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A lot of those use computers to control them, so without computer chips they would be useless....
Although Lasers would be a great one too....more and more types of lasers are being used for so many different types of applications.
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Then again, you might go for something that not every other student is going to use. I'm not sure how old some of these technologies are, like lasers. :googles: Invented in 1955: MICR (and with that I would put credit cards, esp. electronic processing of credit cards- I had a job at the tail end of doing credit cards by paper- at the register you had to look in a booklet to see if the number was bad. If it was not in the book you wrote the page number that you did NOT find it on on the slip. The manager mailed in the slips, I think).
Satellites were 1957. Firmly in the 50 years, unquestioningly a global impact.
Tiddly winks.
Hmm, you miss oral contraceptives by one year. Likewise non-stick cookware, kidney transplants, and the solar cell.
TV remote control was 55. And the microwave.
1956 you got your scotchguard, liquid paper, and VCR technology.
'57: Fortran, Velcro, and AAs.
Ah, '58 is the laser, modem, and the hudswinger/hoopsucker depending on your preference.
'59 has the pacemaker and snowmobile. The original "ski-dog" was accidentally patented as "ski-doo".
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I know you picked medical, but I would go with the invention of the integrated ciruit (IC) also called computer chips or just chips. It was a very fundamental invention that paved the way for many future applications.
This page says 1958, other sources say 1957.
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Darn it! I thought I almost had one: the atomic bomb. However, a quick google revealved the patent for it was awarded in 1934, quite a few years past the 50 years ago mark.
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I could not have told you that the atomic bomb was patented in the 30s. But it was used in 1945 -- 60 years ago.
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Oral contraceptives might be doable; it depends what you consider the invention. Norethindrone (and norethynodrel) were invented before 1955. However, it was after 1955 that the Pill became commercially available. FDA approval came in 1960 (after an application the year prior).
So I think the case could be made that it falls within the 50-year cutoff.
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