Science Week: The Best Invention of 2007
Posted on November 17, 2007 - Filed Under Science |

Damien suggests that there’s a better than average chance of winning a Wii today in Science Week Ireland’s competition, and that’s all the inducement I need to blog about the best invention of 2007. The problem is, as a Politics and Philosophy student who doesn’t usually pay too much attention to matters of science and technology, I’m not aware of what useful inventions 2007 witnessed, or rather I wasn’t until I did some research on the matter (you see, Science Week does promote engagement with science!).
Anyway, I googled “inventions 2007″, had a look at a few different websites, and finally decided that ‘Slidingly Engaging Fastener’ is the best invention of 2007, even though it has probably the worst name of all this year’s inventions. Slidingly Engaging Fastener is basically a much stronger, plastic and less noisy version of Velcro. As you can see in the picture with the inventor Leonard Duffy, it’s already being put to use in removable plastic casts, and there are plans to use it for connecting artificial limbs to people. Plus it can be used for all the things that Velcro is used for, such as the straps on ski gloves and jackets, or as an alternative to shoelaces for children.
Not only does Slidingly Engaging Fastener not wear down over time, it also has the added benefit of not catching fabric in its grip, meaning that you’ll never again have to take an old, Velcro-equipped ski-jacket out of your wardrobe and find it riddled with strands of wool from an ex-girlfriend’s jumper, stirring up all sorts of bad memories in the process. What an invention!
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[...] Cian says something better than Velcro. [...]
I can’t believe your still finding hairs from your wan on your stuff. Did she have cancer or something?
“…strands of wool…”