1. Weapons
2. Mathematics and the number zero
3. Money
4. Printing
5. Free markets and capital markets
6. Domesticated animals and agriculture
7. Property ownership
8. Limited liability
9. Participatory democracy
10. Anesthetics and surgery
11. Vaccines and antibiotics
12. Semiconductors
13. The Internet
14. Genetic sequencing
15. Containerized shipping

Do you agree with the list? Those certainly are inventions and innovations that changed people’s lives. You can read the full article, including a slide show, here.

The first one is the light bulb: “Ask any child who invented the light bulb, and the answer is likely to be “Thomas Edison”. Contrary to what schools have taught for years, the American icon, Thomas Edison, neither invented the light bulb, nor held the first patent to the modern design of the light bulb. In reality, light bulbs used as electric lights existed 50 years prior to Thomas Edison’s 1879 patent date. In fact, Edison lost all patent rights to the light bulb both in Britain and the United States.”

The other eight inventions are:

2. The Electric Chair
3. The Movie Camera
4. The Power Generator
5. X-Ray Photographs (fluoroscope)
6. The Storage Battery
7. The Record Player
8. Wax Paper
9. The Telegraph

You can the long description for each invention here.

What were the top 10 innovations coming from Apple though? The Apple Gazette has a comprehensive list covering those break-through products, check it out:

10) Intel Partnership/Boot Camp

9) Mac Mini

8) Newton

7) iLife

6) Powerbook 100 Series

5) The Macintosh

4) iMacs

3) OS X

2) iPod

1) The Apple II

You can read the description of each product here.

#6 Lumbar Support Chair: The chair is composed of 11 torsion-loaded support springs. It does not only force a correct and comfortable position as you sit but apparently it also improves the overall posture over the time. They go for $1500 a pop however, so maybe your should grab a scoliosis certificate before proposing the chair to the HR department.

#5 iLamp: “Four-step million-dollar marketing plan for the 21st century: 1) Find an everyday product. 2) Add an iPod dock and speaker set. 3) Put the letter “i” in front of it. 4) Sit back and watch the dollars roll in”. Despite the name, though, it should work with any MP3 player on the market. The only thing I am also not sure is whether this product should be offered to office workers or to tech-savvy, apple-fanatic teenagers. After all, as the manufacture claims, this is the lamp that rocks…
#2 Belkin Flip: You just received a new computer but are scared about the idea of transferring all the data from the old one? Worry no more. Belkin just created a very handy device that enables you to connect two computers to the same monitor, and you can switch back and forth between them with a single tap on the flip.

You can check the full list here.

Now, did YouTube really invented online video sharing? There were several other companies doing that already, YouTube just implemented online video sharing under a very efficient yet simple model. In my opinion, therefore, YouTube can be considered the best innovation of 2006 rather than the best invention.

Anyway, other winning inventions included:

• the Tesla Roadster electric sports car
• an infrared alcohol test that requires 60 seconds
• a machine that creates superoxygenated water to clean food
• an umbrella that dries with just one shake
• a military robot develop for search-and-rescue missions

You can read the full article here.