The 100 Best Innovations of 2009 

Source: ReutersCatholic nuns wear masks as they pray after attending a mass at Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral

A flu-killing face mask, a doorknob that never gets dirty and a robot with whiskers have all made it into a list of the 100 Best Innovations of 2009 .
  
The list, compiled by Popular Science magazine, includes the best products and ideas featured in the magazine over the last 12 months.
  
The ever-clean doorknob is called the Purleve hygienic handle and stores thousands of spooled sterile plastic sleeves, which are dispensed by a motor in the handle after someone uses it.
  
The rat-like robot has been dubbed the SCRATCHbot by researchers at Bristol University in the UK.

It uses whiskers instead of cameras to see in the dark, which is useful in search-and-rescue missions where vision is impaired, such as in mines or smoky rooms.
  
Other notable items are a tentacled speed bump capable of lassoing a getaway car, wallpaper that is strong enough to hold walls together after a bomb blast, a mammogram with a 99% success rate and a vibrating flute that cleans sick lungs.
  
"Our awards for the innovations of the year are judged on what kind of differences they can make and that they have a positive influence on how we can live our lives," said Popular Science editor Kevin Cheung.
  
Not all of the innovations are currently commercially available but Cheung believes they all stand a good chance in the market.
  
"It will depend on how consumers or their relevant industries take to them, but I think what's important is the ideas they promote," he said.
  
The innovation that takes the top prize this year is the Littmann Electronic Stethoscope 3200, manufactured by 3M.
  
The stethoscope has been around for 190 years and is older than even the ballpoint pen and most other items you'd find lying around a GP's surgery.
  
This new smart model, however, works by amplifying the heartbeat and beaming soundwaves back to a computer program that analyses them and detects even tiny abnormalities.
  
"It really sounds like something out of an episode of Star Trek," said Cheung.
  
If the innovation takes off, it could eliminate millions of cardiologist visits a year and save billions of dollars in healthcare costs, as well as catching dangerous heart murmurs, Popular Science said.
  
Cheung said it was hard to pick a personal favourite but nominated the Toxin Terminator as a winner for green technology.
  
The chemical compound, 15 years in development, consists of silica molecules, which can remove toxic chemicals such as mercury from waste.
  
According to the magazine, the product, officially dubbed the Thiol-SAMMS, has successfully cleaned wastewater in a coal plant and an offshore oil rig.

It can also recover precious metals such as copper and gold.
  
All great innovations share certain qualities, Cheung says.
  
"As far as I'm concerned, the greatest innovations have always been the ones which reduced time and space, such as internet, which makes communication faster, or the MP3 that has made sound and music portable.
  
"Those, to me, have been the most exciting elements that have changed our lives."