Last millennium's greatest inventions

• Printing press
• Steam engine
• Telephone
• Plastic
• X-rays
• Penicillin
• Computer
• Transistor
• DNA double helix
• Internet

To this list, we could also add the electric light, reinforced concrete, the motion picture, pasteurisation, the television, the car, the zip, the aeroplane, the nuclear reactor, the laser, the mobile phone and the smartcard. The preceding millennia accounted for basic inventions such as the use of fire, the wheel, paper and gunpowder.