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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Coolest Inventions of 2002

Spanish Translation

Vote for the cool new invention that you'd most like to own!

Throughout history, inventors' ideas have transformed the way we live. Imagine a world without telephones, televisions or computers! Every year, inventive minds dream up gadgets and gizmos that make our lives easier—or at least a lot more fun. This year is no exception. The editors of TIME magazine combed through hundreds of new products and selected only the very best for a roundup of the year's coolest inventions. Here are some of the year's biggest new ideas.

Model Car
What will the car of the future look like? This one has no engine. It doesn't need gasoline. There isn't even a steering wheel. Best of all, it doesn't pollute the air!

The controls for the Hy-wire car were inspired by aircraft cockpits, but driving it seems more like playing a video game. The car has a small color screen and two hand grips in place of a steering wheel. To drive, just grab the grips and twist right to go faster. Move the grips up or down to turn left or right. Squeeze them to stop.

Unlike today's cars, this futuristic auto doesn't give off any harmful gases into the air. It is powered by chemical reactions between oxygen and water. The only thing this car releases is water vapor.

Each car can have many different looks. The car has a basic platform that fits with different "bodies." Imagine: You could switch from having a minivan on the weekends to having a sports car during the week.

General Motors says the Hy-wire could be on the road by 2010—just in time for you to drive!

Three-Wheeler
This isn't your kid brother's tricycle! The Trikke (pronounced "trike") is made at the same Chinese factory that builds Razor scooters. Its three wheels may look silly, but they make the Trikke more stable than the Razor. After pushing off with one foot, the rider uses the side-to-side rocking motion used by in-line skaters to keep it going. The Trikke sells for $200 to $300.

Bowwow! Wow!
Wow! Wonder what your dog is really thinking? Takara, a Japanese toymaker, claims it can translate barking into words with its new gadget, Bowlingual. A microphone attaches to a dog's collar, and a receiver "translates" his yelps and growls into phrases like "I can't stand it," "How boring," and "I'm lonely." How does it work? Animal experts collected and interpreted dog noises. When a dog barks, the sound is matched to the ones translated earlier. For now, the translator is available only in Japan. That's ruff.

A Handy Mike
At a big meeting? Your turn to speak? Just catch the microphone! The Sputmik is a wireless microphone that is well-padded, so you can just toss it overhead like a beachball to the next speaker. Not yet for sale, the gadget comes from Design Continuum and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fly Right
The Power Air Surfer is not a plain plane. It's a new radio-controlled toy airplane from Hasbro that's almost impossible to crash. Its two 32-inch wings and double propellers make it superstable, even when floating down from 100 feet high. Warning to kid pilots: This craft has a rather high-flying price—$75.

Robo-Vac
Geniuses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created Roomba, a robot that vacuums. The $200 robot zips under furniture. Sensors keep it from bumping into walls or falling down the stairs. When it finishes, Roomba beeps proudly, then turns itself off.

A Small World
In 1997, a team of Japanese engineers imagined a computer so powerful that it could keep track of every environmental event in the world at once—steaming rain forests in Bolivia, factories in Mexico belching smoke, wind and ocean currents, the works. What's more, they dared to build it. On March 11, 2002, they switched on the Earth Simulator for the first time. A virtual twin of our home planet was born.

Located in Yokohama, Japan, the Earth Simulator is the size of four tennis courts. It cost around $350 million to build. Environmentalists say it was worth every penny. After climate data from satellites and ocean instruments goes in, the simulator creates a computer model of the planet. Then we can fast-forward to see what will happen in the future as a result of today's conditions. Scientists have already completed a forecast of ocean temperatures for the next 50 years. The image below shows ocean temperatures, with the red patch being the warmest.

Now we need not wait 10 or 20 years to see how our actions will affect our world. By digitally copying Earth, we might just be able to save it.

Call Me on My Tooth
Two British researchers have developed a "phone tooth." Seriously. It can be buried in a molar to receive cell-phone calls. The signals travel from the tooth through the skull to the inner ear, where only the receiver can hear them. You can't buy a phone tooth yet—there's only one. Besides, how would you return your calls?


Totally Tough Bubbles
With Catch-a-Bubble, you can blow bubbles that last about five minutes instead of just a few seconds. The secret is a chemical that toughens when it touches air. These thick-skinned bubbles can be held, tossed and—carefully, carefully—stacked together. Isn't that just un-bubble-ievable?

Vote for the cool new invention that you'd most like to own!

Next: Twisters Hit by the Dozens