Locums for a Small World Blog

5 Aussie inventions that changed the world

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Those Aussies are an ingenious bunch. Thousands of years ago, they came up with the boomerang; more recently they invented the inflatable aircraft slide (which doubles as a flotation device). Oh, and then there's the ice-making machine and the pop-top can. Sure, they did come up with Vegemite, but they're also the single source of many notable world firsts. You just may be using one now.

1. WiFi anyone? In 1992, an Australian named John O' Sullivan was trying to detect the radio pulse of exploding mini black holes when he and his colleagues discovered WiFi technology and realized its potential. Like the estimated 1 billion devices worldwide? We'd say one thousand times one million is "potential."

2. Then there's the two audacious Australian brothers named Lars and Jens Rasmussen. In 2004, they were jobless and had $16 between them. They also had a "sophomore product" that they said would "kill email." So they flew from Sydney to Silicon Valley and managed to sell their little web application to a little company called Google. Their Wave found a home with Google Maps and the Rasmussen boys found a cushy job.

3. Now here's something Qantas Airways can appreciate: When Melbourne resident, David Warren, was asked to investigate the mysterious crash of the world's first jet-powered aircraft in 1953, he argued that a cockpit voice recorder would be a useful way to solve otherwise unexplainable aircraft accidents. Hmmm, let's see: a durable box designed to record and replay flight data and audio from the final moments before a plane crash, revealing what went wrong. Warren was the only one who thought the idea had merit, so he went ahead and built one anyway. It took several years and an airliner crash in 1960 to get noticed, but then Australia became the first country to make the ruling that all airlines must carry flight recorders. Imagine a world world without a "black box" - which, by the way, is never, ever black.

4. Listen up: A bionic ear does exist and it has nothing to do with the Six Million Dollar Man's girlfriend, though it has a lot to do with an Australian named Graeme Clark. As a young boy, Clark's father became deaf, and it inspired a lifelong mission to help deaf people, culminating in the Cochlear implant or "bionic ear." The electronic device is implanted into the head to stimulate the auditory nerve and provides a sense of sound even for the profoundly deaf. The first surgery in 1978 was a success, and today nearly 200,000 people benefit from the bionic ear. 

5. Last, and certainly least, the Speedo. Americans love to hate the swimwear, but the rest of the world has embraced it - and it originated in Sydney at the MacRae Knitting Mills. Also called the "racerback," the Speedo was the first athletic design for a suit, and the name was allegedly conjured up by some guy named Jim Parsons who won a competition with the slogan "Speed on in your Speedos."

From exploding mini black holes to the world-renowned swimwear, the Aussies always want you clamoring for more. Take a locum assignment Down Under and check out the rumors that Ultrasound and Latex Gloves were invented there, too.