Business Opportunities Weblog

November 4, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 4 Comments

TIME:

From a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world’s first moving skyscraper — TIME’s picks for the top innovations of 2008.

Yesterday, we talked about the number one choice. Today, we’ll look at a couple of other innovations.

Montreal’s Public Bike System
When lots of people use a communal resource — like, say, a cheap public bicycle-rental program — they tend to abuse it. So when the city of Montreal built its Public Bike System, nicknamed Bixi, the designers packed in all the technology they could find, in a desperate attempt to out-engineer human iniquity. The modular bike-rack stations are Web-enabled and solar-powered. The bicycles are designed with tons of sealed components to resist the savage beatings they will undoubtedly receive, and they’re equipped with RFID tags so they’re easily trackable.

The Memristor
Scientists have known it was possible for 37 years, but it took them that long to actually make a memristor, a new kind of circuit that remembers its history even when turned off. One possible application: a computer that flicks on instantly, like a lightbulb, with no boot-up required.

Photo by TIME.

In Inventions | 4 Comments
Tags: Innovation, Success