Radio

Specifically, Marconi's patented machine. One thing defines us as a species: we can think and transmit the products of our thinking. Radio allows us to communicate at speeds close to that of light. Information can circle the planet in minutes or seconds. Never before has humanity been drawn so close together.

Radio has an illustrious history. Shortly after its development on 28 April 1899, the steamship R.F. Mathews collided with the East Goodwin Lightship. Distress signal sent by radio saved many lives that day. Again, when the SS Republic and the Italian ship Florida collided in dense fog, 1,700 lives - their complete crews - were saved by radio.

Radio also served the cause of justice. The murderer Crippen was caught because the captain of his ship - the Montrose - was able to speak with Scotland Yard while they were at sea. In politics, one of the earliest broadcast talks was by Harriet Stanton Black on the subject 'votes for women'.

Today, Radio still ensures that we cannot be 'lost at sea', and serves all communication - from science and engineering to business to military to the arts to news to the simple human desire to maintain contact with our fellow man.

And radio telescopes all over the world search the sky, detailing the birth and death of stars and galaxies and quasars and pulsars - and, perhaps someday, a communication utterly unlike any ever heard before…

Submitted by: Huo Schmidt