1999 : WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?
Neuroscientist; Professor & Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, UC, San Diego; Author, The Tell-Tale Brain
Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology and Director of the Brain Perception Laboratory
My personal favourite is the place value notation system combined with the use of a symbol 0 for Zero to denote a nonexistent number marks the birth of modern mathematics. I think this is the greatest invention, but I am being a little jingoistic—it was invented in India in the 4th or 5th century BC, systematised by Aryabhatta in the 4th century AD by the Indian Astronomer and then transmitted to the West via the Arabs. And Maths of course is essential for all science.
