What is the most important scientific and technological advancement in your lifetime?

Question

Why? And how old are you?

Answer 1

I'm 34, and I think it was probably the internet.

The internet itself was invented before I was born (in the '60s), and first came online in  the late 70s with ARPANET and the development of TCP/IP.

But it only really came into its own after computers speeded-up and became more ubiquitous. TCP/IP became worldwide at the end of the '80s, and literally changed the world.

As an aside - I have a friend who is a teacher. He once was trying to explain to a pupil that the kid's mobile phone had more memory than the teacher's first computer (a Commodore C64, which had 64 kilobytes of RAM, and no integral ROM). He then tried to tell the kid that computer programmes used to be loaded onto computers from tape cassettes.

The kid refused to believe him!

Answer 2

In my lifetime the transistor was the most important advancement, both in science and technology.  It has enhanced every field of human endeavor.  I'm 64.