Our Search for Amazing Inventions

By James Kelly, Managing Editor

Being an inventor has never been easy -- just ask anyone who's spent a lifetime chasing the next great brainstorm. But when you dream up something truly grand, it can make all the false starts and trial runs worth the trouble. For proof of that, you need merely ask the creators of the 40 examples of inventive genius featured in this week's issue. TIME has spent more than six months surveying fields as diverse as electronics, aeronautics, medical technology, sports equipment, toys, clothing and food looking for the newest--and most inspired--ideas of the year.

If the doorway that conforms to the shape of your body doesn't appeal to you, how about the one-use, recyclable camcorder? If not that, how about the contact-lens sunglasses or the around-the-world airplane or the implantable bandage or the robot exoskeleton that can help the elderly and the disabled walk?

But products that have actually made it off the manufacturing floor are not all we're after. We're also interested in the great ideas to come--the ones still in the back of someone's mind but slowly taking form. For that reason, TIME is proud to be partnering with the History Channel and the National Inventors Hall of Fame to sponsor the Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge. From now through Dec. 31, budding inventors can submit their ideas to historychannel.com/ invent. Next April, 25 semifinalists will be invited to exhibit what they've come up with at a national design exposition and participate in a daylong seminar with veterans of the invention field. Four finalists will then be selected to receive cash grants and appear on the History Channel. One of those four will be named the 2006 Modern Marvel of the Year champ and receive a $25,000 grant to help bring the winning product to market.

Judging the contest will be a group of journalists and innovators, including TIME.com editor Joshua Macht, who edited this week's cover package. And helping promote the contest (and perhaps judge some of the entries) is a man who knows a little bit about inventing great things: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer and co-creator of its first products. "True inventors aren't necessarily trying to cause a sea change in society," he says. "They're just trying to solve a problem. Still, I think this contest is going to attract a lot of great ideas, some of which could change the way people live their lives." So, which inventions in the past five years does the man known as Woz think fill that bill? "The TiVo," he says, "digital cameras, some of the advances in nanotech." And he adds, with a nod to his technological pedigree, "The iPod would qualify as one of those too."