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Issue Date: June 8, 2003
Science
Best invention ever: your toothbrush
Not computers, not cars -- or so a survey concludes. The MIT professor behind it tells why the little things still matter most.
By Peggy Noonan
Of 1,500 people polled, just 6% picked PCs as the top invention, vs. 42% for the toothbrush.
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Forget the Internet, cellphones or even a set of wheels: Most people say they can't live without their toothbrush.
In a recent survey, researchers found that the centuries-old dental instrument (15th-century Chinese, to be exact) is more valued than cars, computers, cellphones or microwave ovens. The 1,500 adults and teens included in the annual survey, part of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology program aimed at fostering inventiveness in young people, deemed the toothbrush the best of five inventions, with 42% of the vote. The glitzier PC got a scant 6%; the cellular phone, less than 2%.
What does this say about our society? We asked MIT professor Merton Flemings, the survey director and an inventor himself, to explain:
You mean to tell me teens want a toothbrush more than high-speed Internet access?
Surprisingly, the largest number of both teenagers and adults picked the toothbrush.
Why was it even offered as a choice?
We chose the toothbrush as one [invention] that is important to us all, just to see how it stacked up against things we thought people think are really important in their lives.
We'd rather be clean than own cool stuff?
In the end, when we think about what matters in life, things that are simple -- cleanliness, the clothes we wear, the house we live in, not to mention friends and family -- really do count.
All of us have ideas. Why aren't more of us inventors?
People in all walks of life can turn out to be inventors. Maybe we don't think we have the time or the courage, or we don't have the focus, or we just have too many other things on our minds.
But you always read about people who stumble into inventions, like the person who first baked chocolate chip cookies.
All of us can be creative and come up with something. The second stage of creativity is how to make what seems like a frivolous dream into something that will work and be useful. To be a first-class inventor takes a very strong focus. You can't do a lot of different things and come up with television, the way Farnsworth did.
Who?
[Philo T.] Farnsworth devoted his life to developing the basis of television. [In 1928, he first demonstrated the transmission of images from his San Francisco laboratory.]
But some inventions -- and a few people would argue television is among them! -- can do great harm.
With any good tool, you can do the wrong thing with it. [When I was a boy] there was a machine in the shoe store I could stand on, push a button and X-ray my feet. It was a terrible thing, but we didn't know the danger back then.
What is the inventor's holy grail?
An economic, pollution-free automobile. It's going to take not one invention, but many.
But first, why can't we simply invent comfy high-heeled shoes?
There have been wonderful improvements in design, but [that's] one area where there's been complete failure.
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