The First The Next

Science World, Jan 17, 2000 by Maia Weinstock

Compare the earliest forms of four everyday objects with their 21st century counterparts.

FIRST

Rickety Racket

Tennis rackets like this one from 1875 had brittle wooden frames and strings made from dried-out intestines of hogs, horses, and sheep.

NEXT

Grand Slam

Prince's new Triple Threat tennis racket weighs only 225 grams, or 7.9 ounces. Its durable frame is a composite (mixture) of graphite and titanium, two strong chemical substances. And with an extra-long head, or area that contains the (synthetic) strings, the Triple Threat's enlarged sweet spot (area where the ball bounces best) will make any tennis player hit like a pro!

FIRST

Puppy Love Man's (and woman's) best friend for centuries, dogs were first domesticated as early as 12,000 B.C.!

NEXT Cyber-Pooch

Meet AIBO (EYE-bo), the first completely computerized robot dog. Made by Sony with a tag of $2,500, this pup can fetch, rollover, and even play soccer! AIBO--Japanese for "pal"--has four moving legs, a wagging tail, and a touch sensor that recognizes petting. It even displays its emotions: joy, sadness, anger, surprise, and fear. Best of all, it never leaves little "messes" behind!

FIRST

Port-o-Potty

Invented in England in 1596, the water closet, or outdoor toilet, greatly reduced the likelihood of getting sick from exposure to human waste.

NEXT

Healthy Flus

Ready for your check-up? Just head to the bathroom! The Japanese company Toto Ltd. now manufactures a toilet that also acts as your personal doctor. Insert your finger into the toilet's armrest to check your blood pressure, a measure of the force your heart uses to pump blood.

Then, a wand covered with chemically sensitive paper dips into your urine to measure levels of bodily substances, like the amount of sugar in your blood. You can even e-mail test results!

FIRST

Say Cheese!

Released in 1888, Kodak's first box camera sold for $25 and came with 100 pieces of light-sensitive paper. The camera created a picture when light shined through the box and hit the paper inside, causing light from an image to be "burned" on to the paper.

NEXT

Cyber Zoom

Photography goes sci-tech with Sony's new Cyber-Shot camera. The Cyber-Shot is a digital camera, so it stores colors and light as digital information--data stored as numbers, like 0s and 1s. That means you can "snap" a picture, send it through a wire to your computer, then e-mall it to a friend! Even more "far out," the Cyber-Shot sports the first digital lens (focusing device) that zooms in five times closer to your subject than you really are!