Author: James Woudhuysen
Why greens don’t want to ‘solve’ climate change
Environmentalists are cagey about techno-fixes to climate change because berating mankind for its impact on nature is their raison d’être.
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Sputnik: when American fears went into orbit
When the Soviets put the first man-made satellite into space, 50 years ago today, the event launched an era of US self-doubt that continues to this day
Read the full article...Like it or not, coal is vital to Asia’s growth
Those calling on China and India to ‘kick the coal habit’, and opt for less sooty forms of energy, overlook the vast benefits of coal-use for those nations.
Read the full article...Innovation is more than combination
New technological breakthroughs are often a clever mix of old ones. But they also mark a leap named Progress.
Read the full article...Let’s research our own R&D record
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development may be right that the Chinese are sluggish on research and development. But the same is true of America and Europe.
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Interaction design and the failure of post-modernism
Review of Gerhard M Buurman, Ed, Total interaction: theory and practice of a new paradigm for the design disciplines. Birkhäuser, 2005, 367pp, 135 colour illustrations, 105 line drawings
Read the full article...It’s official: the masses are not gullible
A new British government survey suggests that lots of us have an agnostic or atheist attitude to the cult of environmentalism.
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This land is our land
If New Labour is serious about making homes more affordable, then it should allow members of the public to buy land and build homes where they please.
Read the full article...HDTV shows the way for online comms
Directed at entertainment, high-definition TV could also prove the turning point for video conferencing.
Read the full article...Three cheers for China’s ‘economic miracle’
Ignore the Yellow Peril view of Chinese economic growth as dirty and dangerous. There are good reasons to welcome China’s leaps forward.
Read the full article...Let’s fight back against the new Model Army
Like voodoo forecasts, computer models of climate change are being used to stifle political discussion and resign man to his Fate
Read the full article...Youth worship will put economy on its knees
The reasons given for venerating ‘tech-savvy’ Generation Y are not new and yet again fail to convince.
Read the full article...B2B e-merchants must raise their game
In the literature of innovation, 3M’s Post-it notes are regularly cited as an example of a great company making the most of a serendipitous innovation.
Read the full article...Is the Red Dragon a green threat?
Ignore the scaremongering of environmentalist writers and thinkers: China should be free to develop as it wishes.
Read the full article...Future traveller tribes
A new way of classifying air travellers has implications for hoteliers
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Will an e-waste crisis be made in China?
In the world of IT, both energy use and e-waste look set to gain an Eastern aspect.
Read the full article...Green issues need blue-skies thinking
Recently I was at a conference on the state of London. Mayor Ken Livingstone made the opening address. One of his chief slogans concerned human waste: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down”.
Read the full article...Take a PEW, hear a sermon
With three new tracts on planning, energy and waste, the government shows it would rather change our habits than encourage innovation.
Read the full article...Don’t let the e-waste tail wag the innovation dog
Killer applications, not regulatory labyrinths about waste, are the way forward in IT
Read the full article...Did Rachel Carson really kill more people than Stalin?
On the centenary of her birth, the author of Silent Spring is idolised by greens and demonised by the right. Both sides need to turn over a new leaf.
Read the full article...Come, friendly bombs, fall on Brown’s eco-towns
With his plans to erect zero-carbon homes in zero-car suburbs, Gordon Brown builds on the Blairites’ small-minded approach to housing
Read the full article...E-science creates another dimension
Remote teamworking is set to have a growing role in scientific research and experimentation.
Read the full article...Broadband goes with the flow
Enthusiasm for broadband appears particularly strong in wealthy countries with a rich maritime heritage.
Read the full article...Happy birthday, Apple II
Thirty years ago, product design and graphics helped the Apple II outsell Commodore’s PET, and paved the way for today’s obsession with computer games.
Read the full article...Remembering the Moscow Trials
Amid today’s craze for anniversaries, there’s one episode in history that nobody – especially on the left – wants to talk about.
Read the full article...Call centres should move with the times
Poor service from providers makes getting basic IT services into a new home the bane of modern life.
Read the full article...Is transport IT on the right road?
The focus of transport technology policy should be on improving efficiency, not monitoring journeys.
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Shaping the Future of the Workplace
In this speech, James asks those charged with managing worplaces to keep calm about climate change and forensically examine official reports about it, and about energy.
Read the full article...The future of the workplace: innovation vs displacement activities
Paper to the 2007 conference of the British Institute of Facilities Management
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In praise of big cities
A controlled demolition of a new report that says… cities make us sick
Read the full article...Let robots take the strain
Robots have the potential to revolutionise peoples’ lives, but Whitehall doesn’t want to fund the research
Read the full article...IT is our best bet for urban renewal
New Labour’s enthusiasm for supercasinos betrays a lack of faith in the transformative power of IT.
Read the full article...War and deception in the Netherlands
Black Book, Paul Verhoeven’s thriller about the Dutch Resistance to Nazi rule, is a cracking movie – and it raises important questions, too.
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A big stink over contamination
High profile companies face embarrassing clean-up operations – and ridiculous amounts of hysteria
Read the full article...Nuke the consultation – let’s have a debate!
Greenpeace and the courts have delayed New Labour’s energy white paper. That’s no victory – for you, me or the planet. Co-written with Joe Kaplinsky
Read the full article...Gambling addiction: a panic at odds with reality
Top doctors, business consultants and officials reckon we could all end up enslaved by the slot machines. Wanna bet?
Read the full article...Wave goodbye to gesture-free PCs
In 2017, when you spot members of staff gesticulating at their PCs, it will be more likely that they are hard at work than losing at poker.
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Farewell to ‘seamless’: how CIOs can make enterprises agile
Special to Siemens Enterprise Communications
Read the full article...The EU’s post-industrial revolution
José Manuel Barroso’s new energy policy represents a retreat from development driven by fear.
Read the full article...Making a tidy sum from all fears
Environmental concerns and contamination fears are likely to generate big business for technology firms.
Read the full article...How to tackle blogger critics
Companies are being advised to use in-house bloggers to appease their online detractors.
Read the full article...Outsourcing oder organisierte Verantwortungslosigkeit?
Gerade ist die globale Unternehmensberatung Accenture von ihrem Vertrag mit dem britischen National Health Service (NHS) zurückgetreten.
Read the full article...Will eco-fear stifle innovation?
Knee-jerk IT choices made in the face of imaginary meltdowns could stymie technological innovation.
Read the full article...Transport innovation: slowing to a standstill
New Labour’s deep-seated hostility to popular mobility is holding back advances on roads, railways and in the air.
Read the full article...How IT will cook up a feast for the eyes
Trends in computing mean developers will soon have to add visual literacy to their skills.
Read the full article...The fear behind the IT disasters
Anxiety over risk is prompting government to outsource more than just contracts, but the policy process itself
Read the full article...Forecasting the frontiers of design
Measures of design effectiveness have become more and more subjective. It’s time to call a halt
Read the full article...NHS puts IT in the casualty ward
The broad goals of the NHS Connecting for Health programme are laudable, so what is going wrong?
Read the full article...Smarty-pants ideas to make work better
Wearable IT is starting to have an impact in sport and may soon make a significant improvement to the lives of thousands of workers.
Read the full article...The dangers of Brownfield Brutalism
New Labour’s narrow vision for infrastructure causes overcrowding and inflames the Malthusian idea that there are ‘too many immigrants’.
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Cooking 2026: the future of making meals in the home
Here is Chapter 1 of a pamphlet commissioned by Le Creuset in September 2006. To download the full PDF version, click on this title link ‘Cooking 2026: the future of making meals in the home‘.
Read the full article...Kreativität und Innovation im Design
Designer sollten auf drei Trends achten: Erstens gilt „innovativ“ inzwischen als mehr oder weniger gleichbedeutend mit „nachhaltig“.
Read the full article...Dress smarter for a better life
Fashionistas and technologists are starting to develop off-the-peg solutions to everyday problems.
Read the full article...Life, liberty and politics after 9/11
Bin Laden and the arithmetic of war, by James Woudhuysen
Read the full article...China Telecom gains global reach
China Telecom is one of the world’s most dynamic telcos and is touting for European business.
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Futures and trends: foresight, forecasting or futurology
In brief, the market launch of a new product or service takes place months, and usually years, after its original conception and design.
Read the full article...UK energy rules leave managers cold
In line with the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, UK regulations require a whole-building approach to calculate office carbon emissions.
Read the full article...Beware the New Parochialism
The Blair-Schwarzenegger and Clinton-Livingstone love-ins on tackling climate change summed up the Lilliputian localism of today’s Green lobby.
Read the full article...Innovation: on the horizon
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have often praised creativity, but the post-Blair era promises to see more pleas for innovation. In the past, too many designers were fooled by the false promise of Oasis in No 10. Now, whoever wins the next election, they don’t need to be so credulous again
Read the full article...Why people feel aggrieved about public Wifi
More urban WiFi hotspots are not a human right – but they would aid mobility
Read the full article...Should each person carry a Carbon Ration Card?
Debate on BBC Breakfast with Professor Mayer Hillman about the Carbon Ration Card proposal announced by Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs David Miliband.
Read the full article...Carbon ration cards
Debate on BBC Breakfast between Professor Mayer Hillman and Professor James Woudhuysen about the Carbon Ration Card proposal announced by Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs David Miliband
Read the full article...Lasst die Finger von der Mikrogeneration!
Um ihre eigene Energie zu erzeugen, werden Häuser IT brauchen. James Woudhuysen aber fragt sich, ob das überhaupt Sinn macht.
Read the full article...A self-defeating argument for nuclear power
The UK government’s energy review is more interested in changing the public’s behaviour than in putting a positive case for nuclear.
Read the full article...Unhappy? Don’t blame IT gadgets
If you’re feeling sad and lonely, cutting back on IT gadgets won’t help
Read the full article...Windmills of the mind
Why the UK government’s energy policy is more concerned with changing our behaviour and mindset than with actually supplying more energy.
Read the full article...The folly of carbon swipe cards
David Miliband is right: his plan for all citizens to carry around a card that measures their use of carbon will be seen as ‘burden’ by most of us.
Read the full article...RFID wireless tags face hurdles
Privacy concerns and high costs may delay the widespread adoption of RFID technology
Read the full article...Hardware design isn’t old hat
Engineering should come before the user’s experience of IT
Read the full article...Chasing the green pound
Will plans for eco-friendly homes fitted with high-tech energy meters be a money-spinner for IT firms?
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The McDonaldization of Higher Education
The term McDonaldization was coined by George Ritzer in 1993 and is a valuable tool for providing a theoretical and practical debate concerning novel and defining features of our contemporary world.
Read the full article...In defence of individual ecofreedom
Government campaigns against running domestic electrical gadgets on standby are unnecessary, and will likely prove unpopular.
Read the full article...Thames Gateway: when IT really matters
If the communications of the government are to be believed, a large-scale residential community such as Thames Gateway can be sustainable, yet devoid of IT
Read the full article...Is being green a turn-off?
Teleworkers who neglect to switch off their kit may not be the eco-vandals some would have us believe.
Read the full article...Blowing up Chernobyl
Twenty years on from the explosion, the anti-nuclear lobby is still playing fast and loose with the facts about casualties.
Read the full article...Computer games and sex difference
The suspicion exists that there are not enough computer games being programmed by women for women. Yet women do play computer games.
Read the full article...IT holds key to East London regeneration
Everywhere you go in an office, regulators want to control your life.
Read the full article...IT makes staff struggle in isolation
Staff development suffers in offices where technology takes precedence over human interaction
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Why don’t women play computer games?
The fact that these are boys’ toys has been theorised as evidence for the ‘politics of difference’
Read the full article...Voice-operated: a word-of-mouth success
Speech-to-text tools are improving and can be a real boon for people who find typing difficult
Read the full article...ID cards yes, mobile government no
The government’s enthusiasm for ID cards is in stark contrast to its lukewarm attitude to mobile IT
Read the full article...Big-headed ideas for mobile systems
It is time to think large and ambitious, not small and niche, for mobile enterprise applications.
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Cool heads needed for RFID debate
Trade unions, lawyers and privacy campaigners worried about “Big Brother spychips” should not be allowed to dictate the RFID agenda.
Read the full article...Power and responsibility go together
You’ve heard about business continuity. In 2006, you’ll be hearing about energy continuity.
Read the full article...Stop this ‘urban regeneration’ roadshow
We need some tall thinking on city planning.
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Take design advantage
People in design will now tell you how passionate they are about empowering others, through local partnerships, to design a better, more ethical world – and a better, more competitive South Africa within that.
Read the full article...All’s quiet on the Trafalgar front
Why the British elite won’t utter the v-word on the bicentennial of Nelson’s battle
Read the full article...IT hosts help airlines to soar again
Disputes between Boeing and Airbus spiral. In the US, Delta and Northwest are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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Airlines: It makes sense to share
A breakthrough new approach to outsourcing is now available to the airline industry which has the potential to transform performance in this sector, and also act as a leading example to other industries.
Read the full article...Time to switch on to mobile television
Media scares about mobile TV’s potential to corrupt kids obscure the technology’s many advantages for business
Read the full article...Die neue Servicewelt
In seinem neuen Buch In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World ermöglicht John Thackara interessante Einblicke in die Zukunft der Informationstechnologien in der Dienstleistungsbranche – insbesondere im staatlichen Sektor.
Read the full article...IT must address grey matters
Technology must be harnessed to ensure businesses get the best out of the UK’s ageing workforce
Read the full article...The new service design
The design critic John Thackara’s new book highlights much of the coming agenda for IT in services.
Read the full article...All eyes on the future
New Labour invests a lot in cloudy crystal balls – a professor of forecasting explains why.
Read the full article...The government IT club wants you
Government IT may be changing but it still encroaches where it is not needed
Read the full article...Contact centres are undervalued
In the right hands contact centres can deliver much more than rage-management
Read the full article...Tying WiFi down
Wireless broadband is the latest casualty of burgeoning regulation in the workplace.
Read the full article...Innovation is more than just design; a reply to Virginia Postrel
Early on in her 2003 book The Substance of Style (HarperCollins) Virginia Postrel celebrates our old friend, the Apple iMac.
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The future of work in Ireland
Looking beyond the myths toward the Big Picture: speech at Industrial Relations News, Dublin, February 2005
Read the full article...Dresden: Don’t apologise – understand
The debate surrounding the sixtieth anniversary of the firestorming of Dresden shows how sober analysis of history is being distorted by angst about the world today.
Read the full article...Staff may be happier at home
Once, only BT really tried to turn telework to its advantage. Now Sun and Brother have adopted similar tactics.
Read the full article...Building on the desktop
In the august British Library, you can turn the pages of a digital version of the Leonardo Notebook by hand.
Read the full article...IT gets behind the wheel of a car
IT in cars may not create mobile offices, but there will be productivity benefits
Read the full article...Metro miserablists
Two new top-level reports only seem to see the downsides to life in a big city.
Read the full article...Time to put the C into ICT
The illustrious Royal Society of Arts recently held a European Technology Forum on leadership in telecoms.
Read the full article...Carriers put innovation on hold
Telecoms networks have proved remarkably complacent
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Homes 2016: Blueprint Broadside
Too many blueprints for the home of the future begin from the interior. They should start from the factory, argues James Woudhuysen and Ian Abley
Read the full article...Distant dangers for staff
I was at the Henley Management College recently for a seminar on Managing Tomorrow’s Worker.
Read the full article...Brands: don’t buy the hype
Both corporations and their critics are so obsessed with brands that they ignore the real worlds of work and politics.
Read the full article...Give them good reason to comply
To see what the world of IT security has come to, let’s consider the University of California’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Read the full article...IT suffers brand identity crisis
As long as the brand is king, no high-profile firm can afford to be truly adventurous
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Education as entertainment
At first sight there ought to be nothing contentious about the idea of education as entertainment. Who, after all, has not been entertained, at least once in their life, by a great teacher – has not been diverted by the teacher’s wit, enthusiasm, bearing, tone of voice, turn of phrase or use of eye contact?
Read the full article...Construction and transport: Victorian Britain lives on
Risk-aversion, short-termism and technophobia are holding back the UK’s roads, railways and buildings.
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The Globalisation of UK manufacturing and services, 2004–24: toward the Agile Economy
Executive Summary: This report is based on interviews with influential companies, both British and foreign, as well as the author’s own research.
Read the full article...Housing crisis will hit IT
Last week the Institution of Electrical Engineers hosted a Guardian conference titled Key worker housing: building on foundations to crack the crisis.
Read the full article...Broadband brings broad benefits
The best thing about broadband is that it looks set to become part of the furniture.
Read the full article...Will the world find salvation or apocalypse in IT?
Why do pundits so often ignore the possibility that IT might improve life?
Read the full article...Die Zukunft liegt im Osten
Zwei Neuigkeiten bestätigen, dass asiatische IT-Hersteller im Aufwind sind.
Read the full article...In praise of strong leadership
Bill Gates and Sun’s Scott McNealy have kissed and made up. Intel’s Craig Barrett has defied the company’s critics. And at Apple, Steve Jobs is riding high on the success of the iPod.
Read the full article...How IT can make city life better
If councils want to use the web to assist urban revival, they should spend less time on waffle and more on building useful services.
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Wireless is nothing without The Face
Do a Google search for ‘Productivity benefits of videoconferencing’, and you’ll find precisely three entries. So if the Voice over IP community has been slow to explain the productivity benefits of VoIP, it has been slower still to foresee the coming revolution in PC-based videoconferencing.
Read the full article...New players on the IT stage
Recent moves by a Chinese PC maker and an Indian teleco highlight the global forces reshaping IT
Read the full article...WWW oder Eselpflug? IT in einer zerknirschten Welt
Die Klage über die ungerechte Verteilung des Zugangs zu IT-Ressourcen ist scheinheilig.
Read the full article...Why is construction so backward?
The UK government should ditch the sustainababble and build the prefab houses Britain needs.
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Why is construction so backward?
Construction is vital both to Gross Domestic Product and to today’s politics. Prime Minister Tony Blair himself chairs a cabinet committee on the Thames Gateway development, to the east of London.
Read the full article...Time to build a fresh, non-nimby approach to new housing
We should have more stigma-free prefab homes
Kate Barker’s final report on the supply of houses in this country, commissioned by Gordon Brown and due in the spring, comes not a moment too soon.
Read the full article...Beware smotherers of invention
Few newspapers covered Lord Sainsbury’s December report for the Department of Trade and Industry, Competing in the Global Economy: the Innovation Challenge.
Read the full article...Brussels outlaws skipping
By 13 August 2005, under the EU Directive 2002/96/EC on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), manufacturers and importers of IT hardware must arrange and fund the recovery, reuse and recycling of discarded kit.
Read the full article...Developing IT
For all the concern about the ‘digital divide’, there is little sense of the real difference IT could make to the developing world.
Read the full article...Let IT be a force for good
On 10 December, the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) opens its World Summit on the Information Society, in Geneva.
Read the full article...Is military IT power waning?
Military IT was once a seedbed for innovation, but today it appears business IT is calling the shots
Read the full article...When offices go PC
As offices have got more complex, salaried posts in facilities management (FM) have multiplied. Yet many firms have also been persuaded that their own staff are not the best people to handle tasks as varied as leaky plumbing and the provision of furniture.
Read the full article...Things to come … Clever Carpets
Since 9/11, the ability to track where people are in the workplace in emergencies and to guide them out has edged nearer to becoming a legal requirement of UK firms.
Read the full article...Is it RIP for R&D?
Henry Chesbrough’s Open innovation suggests that most firms should leave R&D to the specialists.
Read the full article...The future in 3G
Third-generation mobiles could boost production as well as consumption – if only network developers would develop them.
Read the full article...Things to come … Pelican planes
The US Army wants to be able to deploy five divisions anywhere in the world within a month, but it can’t. Boeing is trying to make this possible.
Read the full article...Putting the IT into politics
A little more conviction and a little less ‘compulsion’ might get people interested in e-government.
Read the full article...Gordon Brown in every handset
Payment will be an important application for mobile telephony
Read the full article...Things to come – Tower power
Solar power demands direct sunlight, one of the reasons why the Government’s alternative energies are now directed at wind turbines.
Read the full article...Dangers of information abuse
So now we know. In the fog of Gulf War 2, terabytes of data about Iraq were sent back from GPS satellites and robot spyplanes and displayed on perhaps 100,000 giant flat screens and laptops.
Read the full article...Review of ‘Calculated Risks’: Thomas Watson Sr and the Making of IBM
Kevin Maney’s biography of IBM founder Thomas Watson does justice to his daring personality.
Read the full article...Things to come … Big Brother for bugs
Creepy-crawlies account for more than half the known species on the planet.
Read the full article...IT must keep its head in a crisis
The scale and ease of transmission of Sars have been exaggerated by the media, with the result that stock market analysts have marked down growth prospects for tourism, airlines, Thailand and even Japan.
Read the full article...Lack of IT cements housing crisis
In his Budget speech, Gordon Brown blamed the housing market for most of the past 50 years of “stop-go” problems in the British economy.
Read the full article...Erbsenzählen im 21. Jahrhundert
„Was man zählt, ist unter Kontrolle“, lautet ein besonders hartnäckiger Mythos unserer Epoche. Auch Josef Stalins Fünf-Jahrespläne umfassten Planzahlen für alles und jedes, und dann wurden doch nur Millionen Produkte hergestellt, die allesamt nicht funktionierten.
Read the full article...Schlimmer als Big Brother
Überwachungssysteme bedrohen nicht den Einzelnen, sondern die Demokratie.
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Good luck to the #farmers on their march today!
I probably don't need to tell you to wrap up warm. But please remember that no part of the UK's green agenda is your friend. All of it is intended to deprive you of your livelihood, one way or another. That is its design.
Brilliant piece by @danielbenami. RECOMMENDED
Innovators I like
Robert Furchgott – discovered that nitric oxide transmits signals within the human body
Barry Marshall – showed that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcers, reversing decades of medical doctrine holding that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods, and too much acid
N Joseph Woodland – co-inventor of the barcode
Jocelyn Bell Burnell – she discovered the first radio pulsars
John Tyndall – the man who worked out why the sky was blue
Rosalind Franklin co-discovered the structure of DNA, with Crick and Watson
Rosalyn Sussman Yallow – development of radioimmunoassay (RIA), a method of quantifying minute amounts of biological substances in the body
Jonas Salk – discovery and development of the first successful polio vaccine
John Waterlow – discovered that lack of body potassium causes altitude sickness. First experiment: on himself
Werner Forssmann – the first man to insert a catheter into a human heart: his own
Bruce Bayer – scientist with Kodak whose invention of a colour filter array enabled digital imaging sensors to capture colour
Yuri Gagarin – first man in space. My piece of fandom: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/10421
Sir Godfrey Hounsfield – inventor, with Robert Ledley, of the CAT scanner
Martin Cooper – inventor of the mobile phone
George Devol – 'father of robotics’ who helped to revolutionise carmaking
Thomas Tuohy – Windscale manager who doused the flames of the 1957 fire
Eugene Polley – TV remote controls