Yahoo Finance 8 Australian inventions that changed the world
Look, we all know Australians are great. Fun-loving, hard-working and devastatingly attractive.
But did you know we’re also really smart? Without these Australian inventions, and their brainiac inventors, the modern world wouldn’t be what it is today.
Medical applications of penicillin
The year was 1945: Australian scientist Howard Florey led a team of Oxford scientists to transform the penicillin fungus into a medically useful drug.
Today, the drug is used to treat bacterial infections and has been estimated to have saved more than 200 million lives.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi probably won’t save your life but sometimes it feels like it does. While searching for black holes in 1992, Aussie engineer John O’Sullivan accidentally discovered the radio signals that he would later use to create Wi-Fi.
So, you probably have O’Sullivan to thank for your social media addiction.
Google maps
Another Aussie invention a lot of us can’t live without, Google maps was developed by four men, two Danish brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen along with Aussies Neil Gordon and Stephen Ma in Sydney in the early 2000s.Google bought the technology in 2004 and hired the four men.
Pacemaker
Another grade-A Aussie life-saving invention, the electronic pacemaker was the brainchild of doctor Mark Lidwill and physicist Edgar Booth.
This happened way back in 1926. The first pacemaker reportedly was plugged directly into a powerpoint and was capable of making the heart beat 80-120 times a minute.
Black box flight recorder
Researcher at the Aeronautical Research Lab in Melbourne, David Warren, got the idea of a black box during a meeting in the 1950s.
These days the flight recorder helps investigators find out what happened in the event of a crash and prevent future disasters.
Ultrasound scanner
The opposite of a disaster, a baby is a wondrous miracle! And guess what invention will allow you to see your precious bub? The ultrasound. Invented in 1961 by David Robinson and George Kossoff, the technology delivers imagery without the risks that come with x-rays.
Wine cask
If you start using an ultrasound to look at your baby, you should stop drinking from a wine cask. Sorry, it’s just the circle of life.
This quintessentially Australian product was invented by South Australian winemaker, Thomas Angove, in 1965.
Spray-on skin
Plastic surgeon Fiona Wood invented ‘spray-on skin’ to help treat burns victims. The technique involves taking a patch of healthy skin from a burn victim and using it to grow new skin cells. The new cells are then sprayed onto the patient’s skin.
She released the technology worldwide in 1999.
Cochlear implant
Graeme Clark dedicated half his life to hearing technology, in the hopes of aiding his hearing impaired father.
He successfully operated on Rod Saunders in 1978, saying after the operation: “The most moving moment for me however was when he heard speech for the first time. I simply broke down, went into another lab and cried with relief.”
After another successful operation, the federal government began funding the project. And in 1985 the cochlear implant was approved for use in the US.
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