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Barcodes
The first bar code (with reader) was invented in the 1950s, but the bar code wasn't used commercially until the 1960s. In the 1970s, a bar code standard, UPC (for universal product code), was developed, and the bar code's use expanded. Bar codes are now a standard in the retail industry and also have important manufacturing and military applications. -
First Organ Transplant
Dr Joseph Murray removed the kidney from one human patient and implanted it in another. The recipient accepted the kidney as its own rather than rejecting it as a foreign body. It was more than skillful surgery: Murray had chosen a pair of identical twins, Ronald Herrick and his terminally ill brother Richard, in hopes their similar genetic makeup would reduce the likelihood of Richard’s body rejecting Ronald’s liver. Soon afterward, though, other researchers deve -
The Microwave Oven!
In 1945 Raytheon's Percy Spencer stan ds in front of a magnetron (the power tube of radar) and feels a candy bar start to melt in his pocket: He is intrigued. When he places popcorn kernels in front of the magnetron, the kernels explode all over the lab. Ten years later Spencer patents a "radar range" that cooks with high-frequency radio waves; that same year, the Tappan Stove Co. introduces the first home microwave model. Read more: The Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Yea -
Birth Control Pills
Birth-control pills are synthetic hormones that mimic the way estrogen and progestin work in a woman's body. Enovid, the first oral contraceptive, was submitted first for regulatory approval in 1957 as a treatment for menstrual disorders and infertility, not as a contraceptive (although the drug had been developed as an oral contraceptive). -
First Bypass Surgery
The first bypass surgery was performed in the United States in the 1960s. The inspiration for the invention of the coronary or heart stent came from the failings of angioplasty. In some cases, an artery would close up again after the angioplasty balloon was removed. Doctors wanted a way to keep arteries open permanently. -
DNA testing
Scientists began to sequence some DNA molecules in the late 1970s. Then, in 1990, the U.S. government organized the effort to map the human genome. This effort to identify all 20,000 to 25,000 genes in human DNA was completed in 2003. -
First Cell Phone made!
The idea for cellular phone service dates back at least to 1947, but the first call was made from the sidewalk outside the Manhattan Hilton in 1973 by Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher who rang up his rival at AT&T Bell Labs to test the new phone. Thirty years later, more than half of all Americans own one and cellular networks are beginning to serve Internet access at broadband speeds through thin air. -
Electronic Ignition
Chrysler paves the way for the era of electronic—rather than mechanical—advances in automobiles with the electronic ignition. It leads to electronic control of ignition timing and fuel metering, harbingers of more sophisticated systems to come. Today, these include electronic control transmission shift points, antilock brakes, traction control systems, steering and airbag deployment. -
First Personal Computer
The Apple II, Commodore Pet and Radio Shack's TRS-80 are introduced in 1977—four years before IBM, soon to become synonymous with the term "PC," unveils its PERSONAL COMPUTER -
GPS!
The first satellite in the modern Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) is launched. (The GPS's precursor, TRANSIT, was developed in the early 1960s to guide nuclear subs.) It is not until the year 2000, though, that President Clinton grants nonmilitary users access to an unscrambled GPS signal. Now, cheap, handheld GPS units can determine a person's location to within 3 yards. -
Laproscopy
The 1980s saw major developments in surgery. The first minimally invasive surgery was performed in 1987, although robots were first to perform biopsies as early as 1985. In the early 1980s, scientists discovered that lasers could be used to cut organic tissue. These developments helped make surgery more precise, which in turn made surgery safer and reduced recovery time. -
HTML!
Tim Berners-Lee creates "hypertext markup language" (HTML) to make Web pages and the "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) to identify where information is stored. These breakthroughs form the foundation of the WORLD WIDE WEB.
