This year’s stone-age-themed homecoming was named “Re-inventing the Wheel.” This title is a great way to describe homecoming, but a poor idea in practice. The wheel essentially has no flaws, and has been in use for thousands of years, making it perhaps the greatest invention of all time. There are of course many other great inventions, which is why this week, Minds at Mines asks, “What is the greatest invention of all time and why?”
| Ross Peters “Velcro. It is just brilliant. You can use it for anything from sky diving to scuba diving” |
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John Reberry “Linux. It is a free operating system that anyone can use, and it has many implementations in our daily life. Linux is software, which makes it different from other inventions.” |
| Chris Marchbanks “Transistors, because they are what make computers work. They can be switches or amplifiers, and are a key to global communications.” |
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Thomas Brown “The Material Transporting Carapace (a.k.a backpack.) Before these were invented, people had to carry books and papers with their hands. Who wants to do that?” |
| Derek Witte “Sliced bread. As an invention to which many others are compared, it has to be among the greatest. Not many inventions can be the greatest since themselves.” |
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