How To Split An Atom

This list is an attempt to cover some of the most important innovations in technology in the last 20 years. Like any list of this kind it’s more clearly defined by what’s not included than what is. I have tried to include a wide array of innovations, but it is somewhat skewed towards consumer technologies.

If you have any other suggestions, be sure to leave them.

World Wide Web (1990)

Developed while Tim Berners-Lee was an independent contractor at CERN, the World Wide Web was invented as an easier way of sharing and updating files between researches. The first web site went online on August, 6th 1991 and since then hundreds of millions of others have followed.

Windows 3.0 released (1990)

Windows 3.0 was the first commercially successful version of Windows developed by Microsoft. It was a strong competitor to the Apple Macintosh and featured an improved GUI and enhanced memory management.

Gene Therapy (1990)

First performed by W. French Anderson of the National Institutes of Health. It was performed on a four year old child, Ashanthi DeSilva, with an acute immune disorder. The therapy was deemed to be successful, improving her immune system by 40%.

Photo Credit

Hubble Telescope (1990)

The Hubble telescope was carried into orbit in April of 1990 and named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. The Hubble telescope is one of the largest and most versatile telescopes ever to be put in orbit. It is also the only telescope designed to be serviced by astronauts, which it was in 1993 and will be again in October of 2008.

LASIK surgery (1990)

LASIK surgery was first developed in 1990 by Lucio Buratto and Ioannis Pallikaris. The modern technique is a melding of two previous techniques, keratomileusis and photorefractive keratectomy. Since then the techniques have improved substantially with decreased recovery time and fewer complications.

Photo Credit

Linux (1991)

1991 was when the first Linux kernel was developed by Linus Torvalds. Linux is based conceptually on the Unix operating system and it was inspired and supported by Richard Stallman’s GNU operating system.

Photo Credit

Pentium Processor (1993)

The first in Intel’s line of Pentium processors, it was the successor of the Intel486. It was developed, in part, by Vinod Dham an Electrical Engineers from the Delhi College of Engineering.

Photo Credit

Global Positioning System (1993)

Known as NAVSTAR-GPS and developed by the United States Department of Defense, this system of 32 satellites has enabled dozens of location tracking devices, including geo-location in mobile phones.

Yahoo! (1994)

Jerry Yang and David Filo developed the Yahoo! search engine as Stanford grad students in 1994. It currently stands as the second most visited web page, with 3.4 Billion pageviews per day.

DVD (1995)

The DVD comes as a compromise in a format war between MultiMedia Compact Discs and Super Density discs. Technical Working Group (TWG), convened by IBM, worked to apply pressure on the evangelists of both formats and threatened boycott if a unified format could not be agreed upon. The DVD is the result of that compromise.

Photo Credit

JAVA (1995)

Java was developed by Sun Microsystems and was released in 1995. Much of Java’s syntax is derived from C++. It’s designed with less low level functionality and a simpler object model. Java is quickly becoming the work horse for modern software development.

Flash (1996)

Adobe Flash was orginally distributed by Macromedia and was once known as Shockwave. The platform was orginally developed by Jonathon Gay while he was working at Silicon Beach Software. Since it hit the scene in 1996, Flash has become the leading platform for online animation and interactivity.

VOIP (1996)

Voice Over IP and consequent implementations like Skype has enabled cheaper, more universal communication and has fundamentally altered telephony. VoIP providers may be viewed as commercial realizations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol invented for the ARPANET providers. VocalTec developed one of the first commercial implementations of VoIP technology.

Mammal Cloning (1997)

The first animal to be cloned was a tadpole in 1952, but Ian Wilmut was the first person to successful clone a mammal — a sheep named Dolly — from somatic cells. Since then, similar process’ have been used to clone dozens of other animals (including a horse). The process has also created an ethical debate that continues to this day.

Photo Credit

MP3 player (1997)

The MPMan, released by SaeHan Information Systems was the first mass produced Digital Audio Player and it was released in 1997. It had 16 MBs of storage space, which means it could hold just about 6 songs. Today, MP3 Players have displaced CDs and Tapes as the audio device of choice. They have storage capacities in the hundreds of GBs and they are becoming the personal electronic device.

Photo Credit

Fuel Cells (1997)

Fuel cells come from a reaction between a fuel and an oxidant in the presence of an electrolyte. Since (when acting as power sources for cars) they allow for a smaller gasoline consumption, they are now widely being used in the latest generation of Hybrid cars. In 1997, Benz and Toyota launched some of the first prototypes of vehicles based on fuel-cell technology.

Photo Credit

Google (1998)

Google, the brainchild of Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were attending Stanford University, became a privately held company in 1998. In 2004, they had an IPO and raised $1.6 Billion. Since then, Google has become the most used search engine in the world, and one of the most influential tech companies of our time.

Stem Cell Research (1998)

Stem Cells have the unique ability to renew themselves and become a host of different cell types. In 1998, James Thomson and his team derived the first line of embryonic Stem Cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then, research has been underway to find applications of Stem Cells in the treatment of diseases where healthy, unrepairable cells have been destroyed like paralysis. Since Stem Cells can be harvested from human embryos, there is a strong debate over whether the technology is ethical.

DVR (1999)

Digital video recorders have changed the way that people view television, and have altered how advertising is created and consumed. The commercial is being slowly replaced by the product placement, and in general the DVR’s ability to skip through commercials has caused the industry to look more towards embedding advertising in content. The first consumer level DVRs, ReplayTV and TiVo were released in 1999 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Photo Credit

Napster (1999)

Napster was the first mainstream, peer-to-peer music sharing service. It caused a firestorm of controversy which eventually lead to it being shut down and replaced by dozens of other decentralized file sharing services. Napster was created by Shawn Fanning, while he was a student at Boston University. More recently, Napster has returned as a marginally successful pay service.

Human Genome Project (2000)

The Human Genome Project was started in 1990 by James Watson of the National Institute of Health. The purpose of the project was to map the entire human genome and understand the genetic makeup of the human species. The initial draft of the results was completed in the year 2000, with a more complete draft finished in 2003.

iPod (2001)

While not the first MP3 player to be developed, it was the first to have massive public adoption. The Apple iPod, released in 2001, brought digital audio devices to the masses. Since then, it has become the most popular and most widely recognized audio device in the world.

Photo Credit

AbioCor artificial heart (2001)

AbioCor is the first fully implantable artificial hearts. It was developed by Abiomed, a company based out of Massachusetts. AbioCor runs on a rechargeable battery and his no tubes or wires exposed from the skin. It has a shelf life of about 18 months and was approved for use in 2006 by the FDA.

Wikipedia (2001)

Based on preexisting Wiki technology (and another encyclopedia project, Nupedia), Wikipedia was the first large-scale success of the Wiki. It is also one of the world’s largest sources of information. Some controversy exists over the reliability of Wikipedia as a source of scholarly data, but it is still widely used as a reference.

Photo Credit

Mars Exploration Rover (2003)

Spirit and Opportunity were the first in a series of Rovers that landed on Mars in 2003. They are a part of an ongoing exploration project. These two Rovers have performed far beyond their original shelf life and are slated to continue until sometime in 2009.

YouTube (2005)

YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing site, and is one of the most widely known implementations of Flash. It was one of the first sites to popularize the ideas of user generated content, and has also run into controversy for allowing copyrighted clips to be uploaded to its servers. In 2006, YouTube was sold to Google for $1.65 Billion in stock.

Other Technologies

Here are a few more important innovations that have not been included.

• USB
• Digital Camera
• Blogs
• Sucralose
• Nano-Transistors
• Bluetooth
• ASIMO P1
• da Vinci Surgical Robot
• Blue LEDs
• Blu Ray
• OSX

(Images) (News Room)