# What great innovators have there been lately? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142 "2009-02-02T20:50:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/1 "2009-02-02T20:50:24Z")
Many of the major innovations of the 19th and early 20th centuries were associated with individuals such as Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers. Nowadays, most research is done by large corporations and universities with individuals contributing a piece of a larger puzzle. Still, there is certainly room for an individual to create something great. Who are these people? Tim Berners-Lee was the only one who popped into my head. Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Professor\_Murder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@Professor\_Murder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Professor_Murder)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/2 "2009-02-02T20:53:05Z")
Tim Berners-Lee worked at CERN, I thought his work was as part of a team? ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/3 "2009-02-02T20:56:07Z")
Dean Kamen? I’m not sure this is a GQ question, feels like a poll. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/4 "2009-02-02T21:00:40Z")
> [@Professor\_Murder](#): > > Tim Berners-Lee worked at CERN, I thought his work was as part of a team? His invention of the world wide web was coincidental to his work at CERN. He wanted to make it easier to collaborate with his colleagues. Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/5 "2009-02-02T21:04:16Z")
> [@muttrox](#): > > Dean Kamen? > > I’m not sure this is a GQ question, feels like a poll. I am not so sure about Dean Kamen. What are his great inventions? I don’t think the Segway qualifies. You’re right, I guess this is a poll. Mods, can you move it , please? Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/6 "2009-02-02T21:15:37Z")
[Dean Kamen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen) has a bunch of great inventions, including an insulin pump, the iBOT wheelchair, the aforementioned Segway, etc. But keep in mind that he does have a company, and I assume that other people were involved in the development work. And although Thomas Edison is justifiably famous, he also had a development lab with other people working on stuff for him. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/7 "2009-02-02T22:15:22Z")
Some of these guys may be a little long in the tooth for your survey, but anyway: [Burt Rutan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Rutan) > [@](#): > > He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the sub-orbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004 for becoming the first privately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space twice within a two week period. [Kelly Johnson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Johnson) > [@](#): > > He played a leading role in the design of over forty aircraft including several that were honored with the prestigious Collier Trophy. Johnson acquired a reputation as one of the most talented and prolific aircraft design engineers in the history of aviation. I don’t know how much Steve Jobs contributes to the actual design of Apple products but he gets kudos from me for at least spearheading Apple which pretty much has set the standards for personal electronics design and integrating the computer into our personal lives for a couple of decades now. Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google’s ridiculously simple and powerful interface. [Seymour Cray](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray) (d. 1996) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/8 "2009-02-02T22:49:00Z")
And how could I forget (more of the long-in-the-tooth or no longer with us crowd): [Les Paul](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul) [Leo Fender](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratocaster) [Tom Dowd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd) ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/9 "2009-02-03T03:39:34Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > Many of the major innovations of the 19th and early 20th centuries were associated with individuals such as Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers. Edison ran a research lab with hundreds of workers, really the IBM labs of his time. Much of his inventions were largely done by his team, e.g. the Kinetograph. One of his workers Tesla, probably has a greater chance of being described as a one man invention machine. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/10 "2009-02-03T05:00:45Z")
The plow was an amazing invention, but at the same time it only mattered to farmers. Object oriented programming was an amazing invention, but pretty well only useful to programmers. So in terms of things that show up in the average person’s house? The only two things I can think of that have appeared in my lifetime that are pretty innovative are the [menstrual cup](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cup) and the [AlphaGrip](http://www.alphagrips.com/). The former doesn’t appear to have any particular inventor. The latter is probably the brainchild of Michael Willner, but also is likely to fail as a business. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/11 "2009-02-03T05:39:35Z")
[Here](http://archive.sciencewatch.com/jan-feb2000/sw_jan-feb2000_page3.htm) is a fascinating interview with **Shuji Nakamura** , inventor of those bright blue LED lights that you see everywhere these days. A couple quotes from the story: > [@](#): > > For two decades, researchers working for the biggest players in the electronics industry, from RCA and Hewlett-Packard to Matsushita and Sony, tried their hands at the blue laser diode and failed. Nakamura, a self-described country boy, did it while working for Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd. in Tokushima, Japan. > [@](#): > > By this time the R&D department was down to just me—the other two people left because the results were so terrrible. I kept at it, but I was dispirited. For ten years I had worked very hard to make these products. I worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, except holidays. I had a very, very small budget and had to make everything I needed myself. I even made my own reactors—the furnaces needed to do the crystal work. The commercial reactors were too expensive. I made three products all by myself, and still my salary and position were not good at the company. My bosses always complained that my results were terrible, because I spent a lot of money, as far as they were concerned, and nothing sold. But for ten years I had been working to make these LED materials and I knew at the time there were no high-brightness blue LEDs. For LED researchers, this was a dream. But my bosses said it would be impossible to create a blue LED at Nichia, because many big companies and many research teams in big universities were trying to do it and were failing. His creation pretty much single-handedly turned Nichia from a small company with an R&D department that had so few people that they could all sit down at my kitchen table, into a huge international success with $2 billion a year in sales. To thank him for making their company successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, he was awarded a paltry bonus of $180 for his invention. The story has a happy ending, though, in that he eventually sued Nichia, and recovered $7 million. That settlement wasn’t reached until 2005, so it isn’t mentioned in the 2000 interview linked to above. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/12 "2009-02-03T08:55:28Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The plow was an amazing invention, but at the same time it only mattered to farmers. Yeah. What’s the big deal about food, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/13 "2009-02-03T09:13:00Z")
> [@scm1001](#): > > Edison ran a research lab with hundreds of workers, really the IBM labs of his time. Much of his inventions were largely done by his team, e.g. the Kinetograph. One of his workers Tesla, probably has a greater chance of being described as a one man invention machine. And the Wright brother didn’t just made an airplane from scratch, they improved from slightly lesser models built by people on both sides of the ocean. Even Newton and Einstein stood on the shoulders of giants. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/14 "2009-02-03T09:13:19Z")
[Andrew](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wiles) [Wiles](http://www.simonsingh.net/Fermats_Last-Theorem_The_Book.html)? ---
**Author:** ![Professor\_Murder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@Professor\_Murder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Professor_Murder)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/15 "2009-02-03T10:10:45Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > His invention of the world wide web was coincidental to his work at CERN. He wanted to make it easier to collaborate with his colleagues. > > Thanks, > Rob Nice one. Good to know for future reference. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/16 "2009-02-03T12:16:22Z")
The people who designed and built the Milau bridge probably qualify. And, on the darker side, how about Osama bin Laden? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/17 "2009-02-03T13:09:58Z")
Les Paul still plays shows in NYC and if you bring him a Les Paul guitar he will sign it for you. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/18 "2009-02-03T14:14:40Z")
I was looking for really game-changing inventions, like the integrated circuit. As far as standing on the shoulders of giants, every inventor in history probably has. Also, while it is true that Edison was at the head of a large R&D lab, he was personally responsible for some major inventions, like the phonograph. Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/19 "2009-02-03T14:27:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > [Dean Kamen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen) has a bunch of great inventions, including an insulin pump, the iBOT wheelchair, the aforementioned Segway, etc. But keep in mind that he does have a company, and I assume that other people were involved in the development work. And although Thomas Edison is justifiably famous, he also had a development lab with other people working on stuff for him. Dean Kamen is the first one I think of. He doesn’t make every widget but I’m pretty sure he does all the inventing. The amazing thing is how diverse his inventions are. For one he is the reason that kidney patients don’t have to spend their lives in a hospital. He invented the home dialysis machine. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142/20 "2009-02-03T14:44:12Z")
While I don’t want a world without Dean Kamen, so far he hasn’t really come up with anything with really far-reaching consequences. Thanks, Rob [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-great-innovators-have-there-been-lately/484142.md?page=2)