Hello! I am Aradhana Verma, a fourth year Cognitive Sciences major. I will be applying to medical school in June, and hope to pursue a career in neurology. I became interested in patenting through a DeCal course I facilitate called Stem Cells: Science and Society. In the course, we talked about patents in the realm of stem cell research and the ethics behind this. Though I understand that this class is more about patents with technology, I am still interested in learning about what exactly makes a technology patentable and revolutionary. I believe the discussions and insights I get from this class will help me focus my interests in translational medicine, which I hope to pursue further into my career.
MY TOP TEN INVENTIONS
I based my top ten inventions on the thought that each invention has had an impact that is greater than the actual item itself. Each of my chosen inventions created a technological revolution, as we had discussed in class. I also divided my inventions into different genres of movements that were triggered from each of my chosen items.
Global economy & productivity
Paper currency
Light bulb
Refrigerator
Communication
Printing press
Computer
Telephone
Automobile
Science & healthcare
Microscope
HeLa cell line
Penicillin
Once I quantitively determined the impact that these inventions had on the world, I was able to create a numerated list of these inventions in order of most impact. Here they are for you to examine!
- Paper currency
- Printing press
- Lightbulb
- Automobile
- Refrigerator
- Computer
- Telephone
- Microscope
- HeLa cell line
- Penicillin
Great presentation!
ReplyDeleteI really like the way that you grouped your technological inventions by their "genres" if you can call them that. It is something that I will replicate in remaking my assignment as it will help me to organize my thoughts especially for the video-blog.
Something that you could have done a bit better might have been to write a little bit about each invention in the blog as well so that you didnt have to watch the video to make sense of your blog posts' reasoning!
Hi Aradhana! This blog is very well presented indeed -- I love how you organized your inventions under specific sectors or "genres" as Oliviero said. Furthemore, you also (like myself) included penicillin which is one invention that many students forgot about. Additionally, I really appreciate how you decided on such inventions via the criteria of having an "impact that is greater than the actual item itself" -- maybe you could expand on this for me? One piece of constructive criticism I can provide is, like Oliviero said (again), to briefly write about each invention in your post. This way, readers will be more informed when viewing your blog! Fantastic stuff -- keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the rigorous way you approached your choices. I thought your choice of HeLa cells was pretty interesting- they're certainly something that had huge impact but that we mostly don't consider in daily life. I'm not sure if that counts as an invention so much as an advance, though, as the success of HeLa cells wasn't really dependent on a breakthrough in technique or understanding.
ReplyDeleteI was really curious to see why you chose the HeLa cells. But after your explanation, I understood why. Its really great that you decided to take this from a biological point of view, which is not something that you see everyday - at least for me, as a mechanical engineer. And your inclusion of the microscope reflects the same thinking. I really like your reasoning behind your descriptions - it makes sense. As a small suggestion, maybe you could include a transcript or a small text blurb justifying each of your choices - it may help guide the train of thought before and while watching the video.
ReplyDeleteInteresting list of ideas. I like how you divided up your inventions into three main categories, it definitely made the organization so much more clear. I personally never knew about the HeLa cell line, and it was definitely an eye opening experience learning about it.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how you chose to order the inventions by most impact the first being paper money and the second being the printing press. This raises the question of what exactly determines impact. It could certainly be argued that without the printing press paper money would never have been so widely used today. I find it extremely difficult to order a list of inventions by impact myself. It might be advantageous to ask what it means for an invention to be impactful: what is the precise criteria?
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting how your 10 inventions fell into 3 categories, healthcare, communication, and global economy. Do you feel these are the 3 most important sectors for the everyday function of our society, or was it simply the way your products were organized. Regardless, it opened a really interesting thought, that perhaps a few industries are more crucial to our society than others. Transportation, Communication, Healthcare, Technology. The only question now would be how to rate one industry over another.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I loved the format of your blog. It's beautifully designed and very easy to navigate. I wish you the best of luck in your career pursuits, and I wish I would have taken your Decal on Stem Cells. Good Luck!
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