We’re Number 21

CNN is out with their list of the 25 top innovations in the last 25 years. Nanotechhnology is number 21 between Space Shuttle (ed. “The space shuttle?”) and Flash Memory. CNN has not named number 1 (ed. “the internet”). The rest of the list is:

2. Cell phone *
3. Personal computers *
4. Fiber optics *
5. E-mail
6. Commercialized GPS *
7. Portable computers *
8. Memory storage discs *
9. Consumer level digital camera *
10. Radio frequency ID tags *
11. MEMS *
12. DNA fingerprinting *
13. Air bags
14. ATM
15. Advanced batteries *
16. Hybrid car *
17. OLEDs *
18. Display panels *
19. HDTV *
20. Space shuttle
21. Nanotechnology *
22. Flash memory *
23. Voice mail
24. Modern hearing aids
25. Short Range, High Frequency Radio*

Twenty five years from now nanotechnology will be number one because it will have made all those marked with an asterisk smaller, faster, cheaper.