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Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#501

Post by rriepe »

frutiger wrote: post #473
rriepe wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's complicated. Helium does make the list, but lithium doesn't. Carbon and oxygen are higher than you'd expect if you're just going by atomic weight.

I remember from my astrophysics course that Lithium was formed in the aftermath of the Big Bang. I would imagine that interstellar space is full of Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium. I can imagine that stable nuclei such as carbon or iron would form as a result of stellar fusion but I would be hard pressed to imagine that these outmass the more primordial elements. I would be interested to see references if you have any.

Wikipedia has a good writeup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elem...

TL;DR: Stars burn it up.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#502

Post by s_trumpet »

ignoramous wrote: post #341
leipert wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you learn writing? In Germany, as far as I know, everyone learns writing with foundation pens. You can search for images with „Schreiblernfüller“ to get an idea how they look.

Not OP, but it is common in India for schools to ask kids to not use ball-points and use fountains instead.

As a counterpoint, my school banned fountain pens and ballpoints both - it was gel pens or bust.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#503

Post by stan_rogers »

abrax3141 wrote: post #307
acvny wrote: post #58

The greatest invention/discovery of modern times is electricity. It is the second fire and much much more..

Fire is old. Electricity-- or at least it's control -- not so old, but I'm not sure I'd count it as simple. Making a functional battery or generator that doesn't just create or store trivial amounts energy is quite a challenge.

Huge powerful batteries are simple. It's making them small and lightweight that's the hard part.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#504

Post by kingca »

lubujackson wrote: post #403
sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

You could also say the bra. Less of a hygienic product for sure, bras spelled the end of corsets and really helped usher in many changes that led to a big increase in personal freedoms for women (both physically and socially).

Hey, I would love to learn more about this. How did bras usher in a bunch of physical and social changes in freedoms for women? I'm not too read-up on any of these topics but I'm incredibly interested.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#505

Post by woadwarrior01 »

andreygrehov wrote: post #432
sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

I live in New York and the majority of my friends do not have washing machine in their home. In fact, it’s a luxury to have one. In contrast, I’m originally from Ukraine where not having a washing machine is weird to say the least. There are many things that would make me call US a 2nd world country, so I’m having a hard time understanding which countries are 1st world countries.

Although the terms first, second and third world are often used to connote standards of living, that’s not the original sense[1] in which these terms were coined. They were Cold War era terms used to classify countries into Western bloc, Soviet bloc and the countries not aligned with either of the aforementioned blocks. And going by measure, the US could never be a 2nd world country :)

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#506

Post by colechristensen »

kragen wrote: post #477
colechristensen wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Development and discovery of appropriate catalysts and ability to organize the large industrial scale needed to produce meaningful amounts of product.

Can't you just use finely divided magnetite, or am I thinking of the wrong process? That sounds like "you can build it yourself" to me.

Lab demo scale, sure. The research and testing of catalysts for the industrial scale was a significant part of the development effort. Lifetime of the catalyst, temperature and pressure of the reactor, input energy, and output rate were all considerations and the result was much more than just throwing some magnetite powder in a reaction chamber.

There's a great book on the development of the process The Alchemy of Air https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discove...

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#507

Post by ken »

WalterBright wrote: post #468

Engines - replacement of muscle power. A steam engine isn't that hard to make (I built one in high school). The Romans got pretty far without it, but it's hard to see them going further.

I disagree: http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/history-of-human-powe...

> "There is no limit to the weight that humans can lift by sheer muscle power. Nor is there a limit to the height to which this weight can be lifted. The only advantage that [powered] cranes have brought us is a higher lifting speed."

We moved to engines because they were cheaper, not because we were anywhere near the limits of muscle power.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#508

Post by DaveInTucson »

kej wrote: post #206
salgernon wrote: post #157

I’d like to recommend James Burke’s series “Connections”[1] and “The Day the Universe Changed”[2] from the late 70s early 80s. He was a bbc journalist covering NASA and doing science communication and one of his particular fascinations (and mine, having grown up with his work) is the cumulative effect of ideas and technology shape not only how we interact with the modern world, but how we perceive it. [1] https://m.i…

Just want to add that Connections and some of his other videos are available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22james+burk...

Many of these are on YouTube as well, just search for "James Burke Connections"

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#509

Post by indentit »

phamilton wrote: post #392
TopHand wrote: post #99

Window screens and indoor plumbing are the 2 greatest improvements for our daily lives.

Except window screens still aren't common in Europe.

That doesn't mesh with my experience. When I moved from the UK - where windows open outwards and its not really possible to have screens - to the countryside in mainland Europe where mosquitoes and flies are much more common, one can buy mosquito nets for windows from the supermarkets. I don't regret that purchasing decision at all - being able to have the window open at night in summer means I can actually get some sleep :)

Re: Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?

#510

Post by kilotaras »

andreygrehov wrote: post #432
sevilo wrote: post #335

Pads and tampons. Some argue these are environmentally unfriendly and produce too much waste, but you have to think, not everyone is privileged enough to own a washing machine in their own home, particularly those in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I genuinely believed pads and tampons allowed women to be more productive in the work force and eventually lead to more equality, just hearing my mom and grandma's story of h…

I live in New York and the majority of my friends do not have washing machine in their home. In fact, it’s a luxury to have one. In contrast, I’m originally from Ukraine where not having a washing machine is weird to say the least. There are many things that would make me call US a 2nd world country, so I’m having a hard time understanding which countries are 1st world countries.

One thing is the fact that it's expected to have both washing machine and dryer in US. This leads to additional space and ventilation requirements.

The solution would of course be ditching the dryer, but not both.

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