[Don_1 (OP)]

The LHC is, whether you approve of it or not, a great achievement. Or is it??? Whether it will shed some light on the origin of the universe, or anything else for that matter, remains to be seen.

Until then, what do you consider to be man's single most important achievement?
Would you chose flight, Man on the Moon, deep sea exploration, ascent of Everest, discovery of penicillin, electricity, internal combustion engine, laws of gravity, Dutch sea defenses???

So many options with such a wide ranging effect on every conceivable aspect of life,but choose just one.

[that mad man]

The widespread production of cheap Soap as it enabled all to be clean, smell less and helped stop simple infections.

[Nobody's Confidant]

Computers.

[Pumblechook]

Depends in what sense we view things..  In terms of direct impact on our lives clean water supply and sewers, electricity ( mainly for light), penicillin and medical advances are important.

Printing must be up there in the first league.  Petrol engines and mass transport somewhat lower down on the list.  Computers and Internet fairly low down.

Moon landings pretty low on the list and Everest last.

[techmind]

Agree with Pumblechook, but how about radio, or more specifically the realisation of wireless communication. It's newer than printing, but facilitates long-distance and widespread real-time dissemination of information.

[Pumblechook]

Yes, I would put radio up near the top.

[lyner]

Radio 4, in particular!

[Pumblechook]

You should post on the Radio 4 Message Board.  There is a science section.

[Nobody's Confidant]

Computers!
Ow! Crap! Forget computers!Revenge is mine, technological demon!

[Don_1 (OP)]

Depends in what sense we view things..  In terms of direct impact on our lives clean water supply and sewers, electricity ( mainly for light), penicillin and medical advances are important.

Printing must be up there in the first league.  Petrol engines and mass transport somewhat lower down on the list.  Computers and Internet fairly low down.

Moon landings pretty low on the list and Everest last.

It is very much a matter of personal opinion. One man's meat & all that.

How about man's conquest of fire??? (Such as it is).

[neilep]

I managed a full ten minutes washing up, dried it and put it all away all by myself last Wednesday !

[Don_1 (OP)]

All by yourself???!!! Well done that man.

[neilep]

All by yourself???!!! Well done that man.

Awww thanks Don....as ewe can see I even wore wifeys pink bow in my hair to get me in the frame of mind...after all..it's one of the two rooms of the house that girlies belong !..and they are grateful too....and compliant...which is nice !

[Pumblechook]

Those things on the end of shoelaces.

[Nobody's Confidant]

Riiiiiiiiiight.

[Ray hinton]

Tequila !       its a nice drop, and have you seen what it does to girlies ! []

[erickejah]

Transistors...  it changed the way of how everything was done.

[syhprum]

There was a lot of clever electronics about before transistors came on the scene we had colour TV, radar, world wide radio communication, computers, moon bounce communication, electron microscopes, etc.
Of course transistors have made many of these things vastly cheaper and more readily available now we can fit an ENIAC complexity computer into a wristwatch.

[Grimbo]

The plough
This enabled 1 man to grow food for many, before this man was to
Busy just trying to find enough food to survive.

[lyner]

before this, man was too Busy just trying to find enough food to survive.

Looking at studies of the great apes would suggest that there are many circumstances in which they can spend pretty much all day lazing around. The pressure to produce food seems to go along with the drive to expand into less and less favourable habitats and to adapt to changing conditions. Once this ability has become part of the 'Culture' rather than just 'Instinct' we got to the slippery slope  and we've been forced, ever since, to manage and adapt our surroundings for survival and expansion. I suppose the Mountain Gorillas have just been lucky with nice stable circumstances for hundreds of thousands of years.

In any case, I should say that the greatest invention of all time has been the sailing boat. That's totally obvious.