Worked at Cymer , in San Diego, for 10 years. We developed lasers for the microchip industry that made most of these advances possible. Best job I ever had.
A little over 20 years, but Viagra has transformed nursing homes.
I might have stuck to Top 20...
15. AbioCor artificial heart
However, Dr Robert Jarvik, inventor of the first artificial heart, points out that the Abiocor heart, because of its size, cannot be used on small men, children, and most women.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1120745/
The second patient, Tom Christerson, who was given less than a 20 percent chance of surviving 30 days at the time of his surgery, lived for 512 days after receiving the AbioCor, dying on February 7, 2003 due to the wearing out of an internal membrane of the AbioCor.[12] An additional 12 patients had the device implanted into 2004, resulting in an average life span of less than five months among all 14 patients. In some cases the device extended survival by several months, allowing the patients to spend valuable time with family and friends. In two cases, the device extended survival by 10 and 17 months respectively, and one patient was discharged from the hospital to go home. For a patient to be eligible for implantation with the AbioCor, the person must have had severe heart failure (with failure of both ventricles) and had to be likely to die within two weeks without transplantation.[1][2]
AbioCor was surgically introduced into 15 total patients, 14 of them during a clinical trial and one after FDA approval. However, due to insufficient evidence of its efficacy, AbioMed abandoned further development of the product.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbioCor
Off topic but I need some ‘technical’ help. I don’t remember my Free Republic password and for some reason didn’t write it down the last time.
I need to clean out my cache but don’t want to lose access to FR. Suggestions?
Yes, I could have started an entire thread on this topic but I figure I could get a good answer here on this thread. Thank you in advance.
Skype? Really???
That is ancient technology. Which very few people use anymore these days.
Skype. Right up there with 35mm cameras.
Google Maps have made getting lost virtually impossible? Hah! Never underestimate human ingenuity.
He missed two biggies.
Internet technology. Including streaming TV technology.
Televisions. Yes the old TV set.
What is interesting to note is how few of those were government projects...
Free markets FTW.
Much of this happened in sequence or around the same time..made the internet fast and nearly seamless.
Otherwise, back in the mid-90’s before Google greatly improved search i was saying PC’s are a flash in the pan.
To bad Facebook and Google is evil.
What, no ShamWow? No Flex Seal?
Still number one of all time: The off switch.
Sorry, but that’s a pop culture list, not a technology list.
Regarding #3, there were Internet based phone programs, even ones that used 33.6K Modems, before there was Skype. Skype was not a huge breakthrough.
#4. Google was even less of an “invention”. Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Lycos, Web Spider and others were around, and the difference is in degree, not kind.
Agree with some but certainly not all.
The further advancements of horizontal drilling, preforation of hydrocarbon zones & multiple stage hydraulic fracturing.
Bob Hope always liked the button that pushes back, to make you feel wanted.
Good list. Though the consequences of some (like Google, FB, YT), are being used to destroy our values & Constitution.