Underrated Inventions (and Discoveries)

What is an underrated discovery (or invention) that's happened during your lifetime?

I was reading through the Stanford Magazine, and the above question was posed to a half dozen people.

One respondent, Elise Bauer said:

"Ibuprofen is the only truly effective drug for menstrual cramps. Before ibuprofen, millions of women were completely debilitated with pain at least one full day every month. No wonder women didn't truly take to the working world en masse until the late '70s, early '80s. This is the drug that allowed them to function in the corporate world."

Interesting perspective.

My choice for an underrated invention would be the lightweight binocular swimming goggle. Prior to their appearance in the late 1960s, most competitive swimming workouts were rarely longer than 4,000 meters per session. That's because chlorinated water greatly irritated the eyes.

With the invention of the goggle, however, workouts could extend to 8,000-9,000 meters per session, and often 20,000 meters per day. This had a great impact on conditioning. It's interesting to note that the winning time in the Men's 1500 meter freestyle in the 1964 Olympics  was 17:01. The winning time in the same event at the 1972 Olympics was 15:58. That's a huge drop-off!

Goggles have also made swimming much more appealing to the casual swimmer.

Question: What would you nominate as an underrated invention (or discovery) that's taken place during your lifetime? Why?

Comments

[shlomo]

Viagra. That blue pill works wonders for marital life.

[Jorge Castillo]

Algebraic notation in chess made it easier and more clear to write and read the moves of a game by using coordinates to divide the board. Descriptive notation was used before but was a little bit confusing sometimes.

I'm not sure if algebraic notation was invented during my lifetime but it sure became highly adopted for us who love chess.

[Leke]

Water absorbent polymers. Saved me changing lots of diapers and helped avoid leakage accidents.

[Roger von Oech]

Shlomo: Do you have to be married to use it? : -)

Jorge: I'd never thought of that. Interesting.

Leke: Created many grateful parents.

[vigrx plus]

nice site..