Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years

February 18, 2009 2:15pm by Barry Ritholtz

Nightly Business Report is celebrating their 30th year on television.

NBR viewers suggested the advances they admired during the 1979 to 2009 time frame. Professors at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania selected and ranked the top thirty.

The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years

30. Anti retroviral treatment for AIDS (Health Care)
29. SRAM flash memory (Electronics)
28. Stents (Health Care)
27. ATMs (Finance)
26. Bar codes and scanners (Retail)
25. Bio fuels (Biotechnology)
24. Genetically modified plants (Biotechnology)
23. RFID and applications (e.g. EZpass) (Electronics)
22. Digital photography/videography (Electronics)
21. Graphic user interface (GUI)    (Computer Science)
20. Social networking via internet (Media)
19. Large scale wind turbines (Energy)
18. Photovoltaic Solar Energy    (Energy)
17. Microfinance    (Finance)
16. Media file compression (e.g., jpeg, mpeg, mp3)    (Computer Science)
15. Online shopping/ecommerce/auctions (e.g., eBay) (Information Technology)
14. GPS Systems (Electronics)
13. Liquid Crystal Displays           (Electronics)
12. Light emitting diodes (first real devices in 1960s; in products in mid-70s)    (Electronics)
11. Open source software and services (e.g., Linux, Wikipedia) (Media)
10. Non-invasive laser/robotic surgery (laparoscopy)    (Health Care)
9. Office software (Spreadsheets, word processors)    (Computer Science)
8. Fiber optics (Telecommunications)
7. Microprocessors    (Computer Science)
6. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Biotechnology)
5. DNA testing and sequencing/Human genome mapping (Biotechnology)
4. E-mail       (Computer Science)
3. Mobile phones         (Telecommunications)
2. PC/laptop computers    (Computer Science)
1. Internet/broadband/WWW (browser and HTML)     (Telecommunications)

Source:
The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years
PBS, February 16, 2009
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/top-30-innovations_home/

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