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Bicycle chosen as best invention
The humble bicycle has won a UK national survey of people's favourite
inventions.
Listeners to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme were invited to vote
in an online poll looking at the most significant innovations since
1800.
It was an easy victory for the bicycle which won more than half of the
vote.
The transistor came second with 8% of the vote, and the
electro-magnetic induction ring - the means to harness electricity -
came third.
Interplanetary travel
Despite their ubiquity, computers gained just 6% of the vote and the
internet trailed behind with only 4% of all votes cast. There were more
than 4,500 votes cast in total.
People chose the bicycle for its simplicity of design, universal use,
and because it is an ecologically sound means of transport.
The survey also asked participants which innovation they would most
like to disinvent.
GM foods came top of this poll with 26% of the vote, followed by
nuclear power with 19%.
By contrast, the technology most would like to see invented was an Aids
vaccine.
Alas, plans to ship long-suffering commuters to distant planets may
need to be put on hold with only 15% voting for an interplanetary
commuting transport system.
Half voted water treatment and supply systems as the technology to
bring most benefit to society.
Another 23% thought that vaccinations deserved the honour.
Each of the technologies were nominated by a different expert,
including writer Sir Arthur C Clarke, cloning expert Professor Ian
Wilmut, and Professor Heinz Wolff.
Prof Wolff's praise of the bicycle held the most sway with voters which
will come as a disappointment to Lord Alec Broers, this year's Reith
lecturer.
His series of lectures - Triumph of Technology - prompted the vote.
In the first of his talks, he expressed surprise at the results of a
similar survey.
It too ranked the bicycle above scientific breakthroughs such as
electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the
invention of vaccinations.
TOP 10 INVENTIONS
Bicycle - 59%
Transistor - 8%
Electro-magnetic induction ring - 8%
Computer - 6%
Germ theory of infection - 5%
Radio - 5%
Internet - 4%
Internal combustion engine - 3%
Nuclear power - 1%
Communications satellite - 1%
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/4513929.stm
Published: 2005/05/05 07:10:11 GMT
The humble bicycle has won a UK national survey of people's favourite
inventions.
Listeners to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme were invited to vote
in an online poll looking at the most significant innovations since
1800.
It was an easy victory for the bicycle which won more than half of the
vote.
The transistor came second with 8% of the vote, and the
electro-magnetic induction ring - the means to harness electricity -
came third.
Interplanetary travel
Despite their ubiquity, computers gained just 6% of the vote and the
internet trailed behind with only 4% of all votes cast. There were more
than 4,500 votes cast in total.
People chose the bicycle for its simplicity of design, universal use,
and because it is an ecologically sound means of transport.
The survey also asked participants which innovation they would most
like to disinvent.
GM foods came top of this poll with 26% of the vote, followed by
nuclear power with 19%.
By contrast, the technology most would like to see invented was an Aids
vaccine.
Alas, plans to ship long-suffering commuters to distant planets may
need to be put on hold with only 15% voting for an interplanetary
commuting transport system.
Half voted water treatment and supply systems as the technology to
bring most benefit to society.
Another 23% thought that vaccinations deserved the honour.
Each of the technologies were nominated by a different expert,
including writer Sir Arthur C Clarke, cloning expert Professor Ian
Wilmut, and Professor Heinz Wolff.
Prof Wolff's praise of the bicycle held the most sway with voters which
will come as a disappointment to Lord Alec Broers, this year's Reith
lecturer.
His series of lectures - Triumph of Technology - prompted the vote.
In the first of his talks, he expressed surprise at the results of a
similar survey.
It too ranked the bicycle above scientific breakthroughs such as
electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the
invention of vaccinations.
TOP 10 INVENTIONS
Bicycle - 59%
Transistor - 8%
Electro-magnetic induction ring - 8%
Computer - 6%
Germ theory of infection - 5%
Radio - 5%
Internet - 4%
Internal combustion engine - 3%
Nuclear power - 1%
Communications satellite - 1%
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/4513929.stm
Published: 2005/05/05 07:10:11 GMT
