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17. NUCLEAR FISSION - this process of splitting atoms to release
a tremendous
amount of energy led to the creation of nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. It was the
culmination of work by a number of prominent (mostly Nobel Prize-winning) 20th-
century scientists, but the specific discovery of nuclear fission is generally credited to
the Germans Otto Hahn and Fritz Stassmann, working with the Austrians Lise
Meitner and Otto Frisch.
18. SEMICONDUCTORS - they are at the foundation of
electronic devices and the
modern Digital Age. Mostly made of silicon, semiconductor devices are behind the
nickname of “Silicon Valley", home to today's major U.S. computing companies. The
first device containing semiconductor material was demonstrated in 1947 by
America's John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Labs.
19. PERSONAL COMPUTER - invented in the 1970s, personal computers greatly
expanded human capabilities. While your smartphone is more powerful, one of the
earliest PCs was introduced in 1974 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
(MITS) via a mail-order computer kit called the Altair. From there, companies like
Apple, Microsoft, and IBM have redefined personal computing.
20. THE INTERNET - while the worldwide network of computers (which you used
to find this article) has been in development since the 1960s, when it took the shape of
U.S. Defense Department's ARPANET, the Internet as we know it today is an even
more modern invention. 1990s creation of the World Wide Web by England's Tim
Berners-Lee is responsible for transforming our communication, commerce,
entertainment, politics, you name it.
