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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

The Coolest Inventions Of 2003

Spanish Translation

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

Dreaming up and selling an invention is a job that combines science, business sense and luck. First, you have to figure out an innovative way to make some-thing work. Then, you have to come up with a plan to sell your product. Finally, if you're lucky enough, people will like it.

The editors of TIME selected some of this year's coolest inventions. Many seem almost magical. They glow in the dark or spring into action. Others are tools to make life a little easier or just add some fun. From robots to glowing fish, take a look at TFK's favorites.

Someone models the new invisibility cloak.

WANT TO DISAPPEAR?
A college professor in Tokyo, Japan, has created an "invisibility" cloak. Unlike Harry Potter's magical cloak, this one is high-tech camouflage. It is made of material that works as a screen. A video camera records the scenery behind the wearer. The video is sent to a projector, which flashes the scene onto the fabric. The wearer blends into the background! The camouflage system may be available in 2008.

SHOE WITH A VIEW
Kids who wear tight shoes are more likely to have foot problems when they are older. These shoes give such problems the boot! Preschoolians shoes look like ordinary children's shoes except for one thing: They have see-through windows on the bottoms. Now, parents can see if the shoe fits. Finally! A window into the sole. Preschoolians run $25 to $60 a pair.

A ROBOT WITH SKILLS
It may be little, but it has a lot of talent. Qrio (pronounced "curio") can sing, dance and kick a ball. Cameras behind each of its eyes help Qrio identify the objects in a room. It can learn to recognize up to 10 different faces. It even speaks Japanese. It was made by Sony, a Japanese company. Qrio isn't yet available for sale.

ROBO-RAPTOR
It took 21st-century technology to make something nature created 200 million years ago: a free-roaming dinosaur. Built by Walt Disney Imagineering, this friendly fellow goes by the name Lucky. The nine-foot-tall raptor wanders on his own, without the wires that helped move his mechanical ancestors in Disneyland. Lucky can laugh, sneeze, smile, yell and sign autographs. And every once and a while, he gets the hiccups. How does he do it? He has a computerized brain stored in the flower cart he pulls. To learn more, visit disneyland.com.

THE FUTURE OF ROCK?
This electric guitar is a lot like a computer. It has microchips--just like the ones in computers--built right into it. The chips help give the instrument a clearer sound. Gibson, a company that makes guitars, will begin selling the instrument in January 2004 for $3,000.

The Wherify watch uses a satellite to determine its location.

WATCH WHERE YOU ARE
Parents can keep track of their kids with the Wherify watch. It sends a signal to a satellite in space, which records the signal's location. Parents can then check a private website to check on their child's whereabouts. In case of an emergency, the wearer can press a button on the watch to call 911. The watch costs $200. Users pay a service fee of $20 to $45 per month.

CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The new cell phones with built-in digital cameras sure have people talking--and taking pictures! Many camera phones look like regular cell phones, but they do much more. Callers can snap photos and, with the push of a few buttons, send the images via e-mail. About 6 million camera phones have been sold in the United States this year. Don't just say hello. Say cheese!

WEAR A LIGHT JACKET
Talk about bright ideas! Luminex is a new kind of fabric that lights up. It's not shiny, and it doesn't simply glow in the dark--it actually gives off light. Designers took tiny, flexible light-transmitting fibers and wove them into ordinary fabric. The power comes from a battery that's sewn into the cloth. Luminex is being used in stage costumes, handbags and curtains as well as clothing. The material sells for $330 a yard.

GLOW FISH
Bored with your pet fish? A Taiwanese scientist has figured out how to make fish glow green in the dark. Professor H.J. Tsai injects cells from glowing jellyfish into the eggs of rice fish. The glowing fish are unable to have babies. Some people say scientists shouldn't mess with the fish in this unnatural way.

ICY RIDER
In 2000, adventurer Doug Stoup became the first American to ski from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole. The trip was exciting but slow. So, working with bike-designer and aerospace engineer Dan Hanebrink, Stoup created a bike that he could ride in Antarctica. The ice bike has no plastic parts, which would freeze and shatter in the extreme conditions. Its superfat low-pressure tires provide extraordinary traction on ice, sleet, snow and other slippery surfaces. After a successful trial earlier this year, Stoup says he is ready to pedal to the South Pole! The ice bike costs $3,500.

NO NEEDLE
Do you hate getting shots? Many doctors give folks a shot to protect them against the flu virus. But now people can spray a vaccine called FluMist into their nose and avoid the needle. FluMist helps the body defend itself against certain viruses. The government says FluMist is safe for healthy people ages 5 to 49. It costs about $50 per dose, though, which is about three to four times as much as a normal flu shot. Ouch!

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