10 inventions that change modern life

A council of 20 scientists from the British Science Association has just published a list of the top 10 inventions that change modern life.

1. GPS technology

Developed by the US military in 1978 for military purposes, the Navstar satellite system was popular worldwide with the name Global Positioning System (GPS), using a network Satellites around the earth to determine the exact location of a receiver at any head on earth.

Today GPS is widely used on cars, airplanes and boats. Geologists use GPS to track the movement of geological tectonic plates and glaciers, and biologists have recently used GPS receivers attached to turtles to track migration. their series.

2. Sony's Walkman player

With the Walkman personal stereo music player, Sony in 1979 opened up an era of technology to bring people, quickly changing the basics of personal and widespread music listening. It allows music fans to listen to music while walking, without disturbing the people around. Inheriting the idea of ​​Sony Walkman, Apple developed the iPod digital music player.

3. Barcode

The dull collections of black and white lines today can be found on almost every commodity in the store. At first glance, it's hard to imagine how they affect human life, but it has radically changed the way we buy and sell.

Norman Woodland first introduced a primitive form of bar code in 1949 by combining ideas from film-edge recording lines in cinema and Morse code to speed up the inspection of goods in stores. Today, concurrent storage bar codes include: prices, characteristics of goods and stock of goods in stock and inform sellers of that information with a single scan of a laser device.

4. Fast food

Fast food has been known since ancient Greece, but only really convenient in the 1970s. Carton boxes containing food and can be eaten on the couch in front of the television screen have replaced meals. lunch and dinner family gatherings and change the lifestyle, appearance of major cities and the health of the people of developed countries.

They make life more pleasant, especially for those who have time constraints, but also a cause of obesity. They contain too much fat, salt and sugar to be preserved longer.

5. PlayStation game machine

Although consoles were known before Sony's PlayStation game appeared in 1994, it itself took videogame out of children's bedrooms to adult living rooms, where computers are more powerful than computers. Ordinary family PC.

As of July 2008, more than 102 million PlayStation units have been sold, while new-generation PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 are also selling well. The revenue of the gaming industry is currently nearly catching up with the film industry with over £ 15 billion in 2008.

6. Social networks

Around the world, computer users spend more than 3 billion minutes every day communicating with each other on Facebook. Facebook, along with other social networking websites such as MySpace and Twitter, Facebook has completely changed the nature and manner of human communication, especially on the internet.

7. SMS text message

Text messaging technology has fundamentally changed the language, creating new vocabulary and grammar that is extremely difficult to understand for those who do not use it. It also significantly increases the role of thumbs rarely used if mobile phones are not yet available. Currently, youths aged 13-17 exchange with each other by messages 7 times more than telephone communication.

8. Electronic payment

In England and Northern Ireland, in 2008 there were 7.4 billion payment transactions made with plastic credit cards. Along with Internet banking, these cards turn checks into excess paper.

Credit cards make the spending process more convenient and secure and allow spending around the world. However, the popularity of electronic payments also comes with the risk of rapidly increasing online scams and the ease of obtaining credit cards has become one of the causes of such financial crisis. gender broke out in 2008.

9. Microwave waves

Microwave waves are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from 1 mm to 1 m, used in mobile phones, Wi-Fi wireless Internet communication equipment, broadband and satellite television.

This is also the technology to help England win Nazi bombing during World War II. Microwaves are also used to cook food in a microwave. The US military now uses microwave technology to create non-lethal weapons.

10. Sports shoes

Goodyear first introduced rubber and cloth bonding methods in 1892, but sports shoes were only widely used in the 1970s. These shoes changed the legs of generations after it was born. Western military complains that the feet of today's conscripted young people are too soft to wear military shoes, because many of them have never been wearing leather shoes before.