Inventions - London Science Museum Centenary Journey Trail Top Ten - Which Will Win the Public Vote

On BBC radio 5 just now there is the curator describing the exhibits...

...he says that X rays are way ahead, though a couple of weeks ago it was penicillin.

If DNA wins can the Pope accept the award on behalf of the inventor? As far as the rest of us are concerned, DNA was a discovery!

Penicillin comes from the mold Penicillium notatum. Since it is a living organism it was also discovered and not invented. See #3 above. Though much work was involved in converting it into the medicine we have today its medicinal properties were discovered by accident.

Heya @charlesf; the items were described as inventions by the Herald (the BBC link seems to have disappeared) tho the site itself doesn't use the word. @3 you seem to be suggesting that the Catholic deity is the inventor of 'life as we know it', mitochondrial man may dispute this! :-) @4, well, you again have a point, though presumably one could make the same objection to treating the steam engine as an invention - steam is discovered not invented after all (same with with X-rays). (I had hoped discovery vs. invention would become a topic of discussion!)

Do you find - as I did - the selection somewhat odd, in both content and distribution? Are the most significant things transport, medicine and communication?

And - have you voted?

While I have hedged, I still think that Huxley (Brave New World) will be proved right, and that the most significant development of the 20th century was the Model T (in the aspect of the assembly line) (which is irony doubly over, as Huxley was not only directly descended from Darwin's great defender, but also applied the assembly line to the production of human life itself, without using knowledge of DNA - something Huxley didn't have when the book was written!).

Though steam and x-rays were discovered the steam engine and x-ray machine had to be invented to make practical use of the discoveries.

Other than the V-2, the Model T and the Apollo 10, I was wondering if a higher than expected percentage of the others have British roots. Since the museum is in London and people can vote both at the museum and on line I was wondering if the selection of the top 10 as well as the current top 2 may have a British bias.

The Model T and and the process to build it would be my personal favorite but of the 10 nominees I think the greatest invention was the Apollo 10. Not only for what it accomplished but even more for all of the other inventions that combined to make it possible of which a number of them should have made this list on their own merits. I am refering to the computer and rocket engine that made the list and also radio and television communication that should have.

My vote would be a write in vote for the transistor. I already take up too much space in the house for my computers and all of their attachments. Imagine if they still ran on 1000's of vacuum tubes. It would be like when I was in college(upstate NY). The schools main computer was housed in a hanger at the local airport. If the computer went down they had to fly in a technician from Texas to fix it. No transistors would also eliminate the laptop, GPS, and I don't think anyone would have a pocket big enough for their cell phone.