[Closed] What is man's greatest scientific achievement?

Disc brakes FTW

There is no greatest..they're just steps along the way.

A friends then girlfriend, now wife,after much deliberation decided it was probably the teasmaid!
"Well it wakes you up with a fresh cup of tea!"
Gobs well and truly smacked over that one.

the Cavity magnetron (cos it has a cool name too) 😉

3d porn

The Haber–Bosch process

or possible directional hifi cables

Chicken McNuggets 😉

Rockshox pikes.

Edit. Naw, reverb. Definitely the reverb.

The printing press.

650b or Blu-tac.

Its a matter of how you measure 'great'. There are technological pinnacles that benefit very few (globally) and are of interest to only a few more. An achievement like regeneration spinal tissue - magnificent for the very few who have access to health care. Eliminating common illnesses like polio are of far greater significance to mankind broadly though.

Organ Transplants.

..until they can grow new organs.

In no order.
Wheel
velcro
zip tie
internet

Brewing.

There is no greatest..they're just steps along the way.

I agree, there are a lot of "giant's shoulders" being stood on in that operation.

Can we have the written word, without it the steps would be forgotten?

Fire

Cake

Contraceptives

I'd hazard a guess at Antibiotics but whether that would come under the term of modern early 20th century medical advances could be argued till we die of old age.

or have they been surpassed this week by the regeneration of spinal cord and partially reversing paralysis?

Lots of experts urging caution in assessing this advance owing to the relatively straightforward nature of the patients injury. Important yes but only the first step. Pun intended.

Quantum electro dynamics.

Boeing 747

Sanitation and fresh drinking water on tap. Maybe elastictrickery too

Something agricultural related (irrigation or the plow or even just agriculture itself) as it allowed humans to move past the hunter gatherer stage of development

Convincing women to sleep with them.

The atomic bomb

If they manage to actually land the Rosetta lander on the comet next month, that is going to be pretty impressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_%28spacecraft%29

Internet porn

Scientific or engineering.

Engineering - probably the steam engine.

Scientific, understanding the principles of evolution.

I'm gonna go with electricity.....

Crumpets

Something agricultural related (irrigation or the plow or even just agriculture itself) as it allowed humans to move past the hunter gatherer stage of development

Tweed.

Looking at earlier suggestions I reckon the printing press and sanitation probably just have the edge over brewing. But not by much.

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Glass.

I could stand on a sandy beach all day and it wouldn't occur to me to turn it into windows.

Red IPA

Beer's a good one, it enabled most people to drink water free from contamination 'cos the alchohol killed the bugs. Everybody drank 'small beer', even children.
Of course scientific discoveries are important, but things that help keep people alive day-to-day are too.

The Transistor

Contraception

Another contraception vote here, giving women control over their bodies

Electric generator

Clearly it's 650B.

I think we're confusing 'greatest achievement' with 'most beneficial to mankind.'

Our greatest achievement, unequivocally, is putting a man on the moon and bringing him back safely.

Whilst this had far-reaching benefits, many of which aren't immediately obvious, I wouldn't like to stand it up against things like antibiotics or vaccination in terms of how much better off we are as a result.

The Haber–Bosch process or the computer have made the greatest impact on human life I would say.

The second wheel.

Ernie has it (I think) - the Manhattan project is the greatest scientific achievement in history. Nothing really comes close if you're talking about bending the collective will and intellect of mankind to solving one particular problem.

So that's a bit depressing - 200,000 dead right off the bat, without getting into the subsequent 50 year cold war geopolitics.
Look on the bright side, though - if you ever get a bit down about oil running out, or un-sustainable living - there is no limit to scientific creativity if the right incentives are in place.

Ernie has it (I think)

Completely agree. That thing Ernie posted up there is definitely the culmination of man's scientific quest (or at least it will be when it gets up to 88 mph).

x-factor

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Organ Transplants.

..until they can grow new organs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26885335

Bacon. Definitely bacon.

I think we're confusing 'greatest achievement' with 'most beneficial to mankind.'
Our greatest achievement, unequivocally, is putting a man on the moon and bringing him back safely.

This.

It was incredible, and still is.

The new spinal cord/snout cells regeneration thing has potential to wow me more though 😉

Thermos flasks.
Hot cup of tea after a whole day languishing in the bottom of a bag.
How is that shit possible?

Cougar - Moderator
I think we're confusing 'greatest achievement' with 'most beneficial to mankind.'

Our greatest achievement, unequivocally, is putting a man on the moon and bringing him back safely.

Whilst this had far-reaching benefits, many of which aren't immediately obvious, I wouldn't like to stand it up against things like antibiotics or vaccination in terms of how much better off we are as a result.

Is mankind as a whole better off for having antibiotics and vaccinations or do they contribute to overcrowding of the planet with all the problems that it brings ?

Currently man's greatest scientific achievement is the toasted sandwich maker, this will only be surpassed when somebody invents a device which cleans a toasted sandwich maker.

[img] [/img]

I'm with jruk on the bacon.

That and pies.

the ability to entertain an idea without accepting it.

Agent 3

Pythagoras theorem.

Nuttella.

Beaten to it! Toasted sandwich maker for me.

Antibiotics, but only for about another 15 years, then we're heading back into the Middle Ages.

I think the nasal nerve to spine thing has been done before . With some problematic side effects in terms of unexpected growths and mucus secretion . So I would stick with vaccination and plumbing.

The invention of the concept of 0 (zero).

Making the world [i]believe[/i] that man had been to the moon. They've done well to keep that one going.

Salt'n'vinegar. Whoever discovered that sprinkling acid over your chips then digging some white stuff up and chucking some of that on was pure genius.

Euthanasia

There is no greatest

Uh... apparently this guy said something similar and look what happened to him...

[img] [/img]

Calpol.

End of thread.

Beer, without doubt.

Because it was in ancient Mesopotamia that some blokes decided to leave their Nomadic mates and stay behind to brew beer. They needed to stop in one place because the brew slopped around too much and got cloudy when they were carrying it, and anyway there was a nice field of barley that they could use as the main ingredient.

From that decision sprang modern life as we know it.

the scientific method itself, if that counts

otherwise; sterilization, higgs boson, relativity

I'd put anaesthetic up there with antibiotics

breast implants

Gravy

'Greatest scientific achievement' is probably man on the moon + back again, however it is a bit disappointing that this was over 40 years ago.

The LHC at Cern probably has the potential to produce some awesome achievements over the next decade though.

Well, it has to be something who's invention/discovery was not inevitable (so the wheel is out) and which has brought genuinely enormous improvement to the human condition (the moon landings only really brought us non-stick pans).

Antibiotics is a goodish one, but they're proving a double edged sword. I nominate vaccination, or nitrogen based fertilisers.

Bunny suits span the divide between mankind and nature.

Antibiotics