5.E-Cigarettes
5.电子烟

E-cigarettes first started becoming popular in 2012. They work by heating a nicotine fluid to mimic a real cigarette. Their invention is usually credited to Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, who reportedly created it after he dreamed that he was drowning in a cloud of vapor. His father had died of lung cancer caused by cigarettes. He himself was an unrepentant smoker who had unsuccessfully tried quitting by using a nicotine patch.
2012年，电子烟开始流行，它们的工作原理是通过加热尼古丁的液体，模拟真实的烟。很多人认为电子烟是中国的制药商韩力发明的，他说梦到自己在烟雾缭绕的蒸气中快要窒息后，发明了电子烟。他的父亲死于吸烟引起的肺癌。他自己也是一个不折不扣的瘾君子，他曾尝试使用尼古丁贴片来戒烟，但失败了。

The fact is, Hon Lik is not the first person to invent the e-cigarette. Way back in 1963, Herbert Gilbert made the world's first device that could be used to inhale tobacco-flavored air. In Gilbert's original version, there was no form of combustion and it was free of nicotine. He later designed a prototype that used a battery to create heat. He also used different flavors of water to create steam. He presented his prototypes to different chemical, pharmaceutical, and tobacco companies, but they simply turned down his prototypes.
事实是，韩力不是第一个发明电子烟的人。早在1963年，赫尔伯特·吉尔伯特就制造出了世界上第一个可以用来吸入香烟味儿空气的装置。他最初的发明装置，不用燃烧，也不含尼古丁。他后来设计出了一个用电池去加热的模型，他也用了不同味道的水去制造蒸气。他把他的电子烟模型展示给不同的化工、制药以及烟草公司，但是他们都没有理会他的模型。

4.Autonomous Cars
4.无人驾驶的汽车

Also called self-driving cars, autonomous cars have been making the news recently. Chief among them are Google's self-driving cars. Google's driverless cars have traveled over 480,000 kilometers (300,000 mi) with only two accidents, both of which were caused by humans. But self-driving cars aren't new. In fact, their concepts have arguably been around since the days of Leonardo da Vinci, who invented a spring-powered cart with a programmable steering device.
最近，无人驾驶汽车的新闻屡见报端，它也叫做自动驾驶汽车。谷歌的自动驾驶汽车是此行业的领头羊，已行驶48万千米（30万英里），仅发生过两次交通事故，还都是人为因素造成的。事实上，无人驾驶汽车并不是新奇事物，早在达·芬奇发明以弹簧发条作驱动带内置预设程序的马车时，自动驾驶的概念便名噪一时。
More recently, however, General Motors made a self-driving car in 1958 that adjusted its steering wheel based on the alternating currents given off by a wire placed inside the road. While the vehicle did actually drive itself, it does not qualify as the first autonomous vehicle because it depended on wires placed inside the ground. The world's first autonomous vehicle was made by S. Tsugawa and several of his colleagues at Japan's Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. However, German engineer Ernst Dickinson is regarded as the pioneer of the autonomous car. In 1987, he developed the VaMoRs which was capable of traveling more than 90 kilometers per hour (55 mph) for about 20 kilometers (12 mi). Seven years later, he made the VaMP, which could recognize road signs, know its own position in a lane, detect other vehicles, and even decide when to change lanes. And a year after that, he and his team made another autonomous vehicle which traveled from Germany to Denmark. The vehicle had a maximum speed of 180 kilometers per hour (111 mph) and was controlled by a human for about 5 percent of the journey.
后来，通用汽车在1958年设计出一款无人驾驶汽车，其原理是：由线圈感知道路中所嵌入电线的交流电信号，并相应地调整方向盘。然而汽车确实能自主驾驶，但并不能称为第一辆全自动驾驶汽车，因为它必须依赖嵌在地面的电线。在日本的筑波机械工程实验室，津川和他的几个同事发明了世界上第一辆自动驾驶汽车。然而，德国工程师恩斯特·迪克斯被称为无人驾驶汽车的先驱。1987年，他发明的"极速"，时速超过90千米（56英里/小时），行驶了大约20千米（12分钟）。7年后，他发明的VaMP，不但可以识别道路标记，而且能定位自己在车道内的位置，还能勘测其他车辆，甚至能判断何时该变道。一年后，他和他的团队发明的自动驾驶汽车，从德国行驶到丹麦，最高时速为180千米（111英里/小时）。整段旅程中，仅有5%左右的路程是人为驾驶。

3.Flying Bicycles
3.会飞的自行车

A few years back, a flying bicycle called the "Paravelo" was invented. And it isn't called a flying bicycle for fun. It is a bicycle (with a large parachute on top) that actually flies. It travels around 25 kilometers per hour (15 mph) on land and 40 kilometers per hour (25 mph) in the air. It can also fly up to a height of 1,200 meters (4,000 ft). The best part? You don't need a pilot's license. The Paravelo has been called the world's first flying bicycle, a title we must point out it does not really own.
几年前，有人发明了一辆会飞的自行车，叫做"Paravelo"。称一辆自行车会飞，并不是开玩笑，而是这辆自行车真的会飞（车头有一个巨大的降落伞）。它在陆地和空中的时速分别为25千米（15英里）和40千米（25英里），可飞至1200米（4000英尺）高空。最棒的地方是什么呢？那就是你不需要有飞行驾照。Paravelo号称世界上第一辆会飞的自行车，但我们必须指出它并不是第一辆会飞的自行车。
The world's first flying bicycle flew on November 9, 1961, when Derek Pigott of the University of Southampton flew in a bicycle with an airplane-like body. It was called the Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft (sumpac). Derek furiously pedaled the air-bike to get it off the ground. It then flew 1.8 meters (about 6 ft) above the ground over a distance of 64 meters (210 ft). While the flight was short and slow, it still does not change the fact that it was the first bicycle to fly and at the same time, the first human-powered flight.
1961年11月9日，扬妮克・里德在南安普顿大学上空骑着一辆形状非常像飞机的自行车——世界上第一辆会飞的自行车诞生了。这辆自行车被称为南安普顿大学的人力飞机（塞桑普顿大学号）。为使自行车飞离地面，德里克刚开始猛烈地踩脚踏板，然后自行车在离地面1.8米（6英尺）的高处飞行，最终飞行了64米（210英尺）。即使飞行速度很缓慢，飞行距离也很短，但这仍是第一辆会飞的自行车，同时，也是第一辆"人力飞车"。

2.Jetpacks
2.喷气背包

In 2010, the Martin Aircraft Company introduced a jetpack it called "the world's first piratical jetpack." The jetpack even won a spot in Time's Top 50 Inventions of 2010. While its development has been on since 1981, the world's first jetpack is known to have flown in 1958. It was designed by Wendell Moore, a researcher at Bells Aerosystems. Early prototypes of Wendell's jetpack could reach a height of 5 meters (16 ft) and remain airborne for three minutes. This attracted the attention of the US Army, which funded the project with $150,000. Several test flights were later done for the US Army and even for JFK himself. The army later stopped paying for more research into the project because the flight time and distance were not convincing enough. NASA also wanted to use the jetpack for their Apollo 11 mission to serve as backups in case their lunar module malfunctioned. They later changed their minds, going for the lunar rover instead. After this setback, Bell discontinued further research on the jetpack.
2010年，马丁飞行器公司推出的喷气背包号称"世界上第一个盗版喷气背包"。这个喷气背包甚至还被列入《时代周刊》"2010年度50强发明"之一，因为众所周知世界上第一个喷气背包是在1958年发明的，且自1981年来一直在发展。喷气背包由温德尔·穆尔设计，他是贝尔空间系统公司的研究员。温德尔设计的喷气背包的早期模型飞行高度可达5米（16英尺），飞行时间为3分钟。这一点引起了美国军队的注意，美国军队便为这一项目投资了15万美元。后来，还特地为美国军队做了些试飞飞行器，也为肯尼迪总统做了飞行器。之后，因为飞行时间和飞行距离有限，美国军队取消了对这个项目后续研究的投资。美国航天局也想用喷气背包为阿波罗11号任务做支援，以防登机舱出故障。但之后还是改变了想法，改用了月球车。贝尔经历了这个挫折后，停止了对飞行器的进一步研究。

1.Bladeless Fans
1.无叶风扇

Simply put, bladeless fans are fans without blades. They work by sucking in air at their base and then blowing them out through several holes in their ring. The fan is reported to have been invented by James Dyson, who calls it the "Air Multiplier." Just like the flying jetpack, it earned a spot in Time's list of notable inventions of 2009. And just like the jetpack, it was not the first of its kind. The first bladeless fan was actually patented in 1981 by a Japanese company called Tokyo Shiba Electric. Although Tokyo Shiba's bladeless fan was never manufactured, James Dyson's initial design of a bladeless fan design looked so similar to that of Tokyo Shiba Electric that the patent office refused to grant him a patent. The patent granted to Tokyo Shiba had already expired, but the patent office still required something substantially different before it could grant a new patent to James Dyson. Dyson's patent manager, Gill Smith, did not deny the similarities between both bladeless fans but said the difference between them was the "technology."
简言之，无叶风扇就是没有叶片的风扇。它的工作原理是先将空气吸入风扇基座内部，然后通过扇头环形上的洞将空气吹出。这款风扇据说是詹姆斯·戴森发明的，并命名为"气流倍增器"。就像可以飞行的喷气背包一样，无叶风扇被《时代周刊》评为"2009年度伟大发明"之一，同样它也不是世界上第一个无叶风扇。实际上，第一个无叶风扇于1981年被日本的东京芝区电力公司获得专利。尽管东京芝区电力公司的无叶风扇并没有用于生产制造，但詹姆斯的无叶风扇的原始设计与其设计相似，所以专利局拒绝授予詹姆斯这个专利。尽管授予东京芝区电力公司的专利已经过期，但在授予詹姆斯这项新专利之前，专利局需要他提供该设计的创新之处。詹姆斯的经理吉尔·斯密斯并没有否认这两种无叶风扇间的相似性，只是说两者间的差异在于所用"科技"不同。

来源：前十网