麻省理工大学（Massachusetts Institute of Technology，简称：MIT）有很多影响整个世界的发明创造及事件，这是最为重要的前50件。

No.50 安全剃须刀

当金•吉列King Gillette意识到他需要一个人帮助他制作抛弃型刀片的安全剃刀时，他找到了来自麻省理工大学的发明家威廉•尼克森William Nickerson。他们在1901年创建了美国安全剃刀公司，也就是今天的吉列Gillette。

Close shave

When King Gillette, pictured needed someone to help produce his disposable-blade safety razor idea he turned to MIT trained inventor William Nickerson. They formed the American Safety Razor Co. in 1901. Today, it’s Gillette.

No.49 风洞实验室

风洞在麻省理工大学有着悠久的历史。第一个风洞实验室建于1896年，它利用了麻省理工学院的热空气加热系统。如今，风洞实验室帮助我们深入研究滑雪装备、宇航服、飞机测试、大型建筑物和城市景观的空气动力学性能等等多种科研课题。

Tunnel vision

Wind tunnels have a long history at MIT, from helping understand why the windows fell out of the Hancock tower in downtown Boston to airplane testing. The first wind tunnel, built in 1896, was primitive – it utilized MIT’s hot-air heating system. Subsequent tunnels were more sophisticated. The Wright Brothers Memorial Wind Tunnel was built in 1938 and used for industrial design and testing during World War II. It was later used to understand the aerodynamics of big buildings and entire cityscapes. The tunnels have helped us understand the aerodynamic aspects of Olympic ski gear, spacesuits, and subway station entrances.

No. 48 雷达

有人说原子弹结束了第二次世界大战，但雷达赢得了这场战争。雷达的大部分技术来自于麻省理工大学的辐射实验室。这个毫不相关名称是为了掩盖实验室的真正目的：微波雷达技术的发展。雷达的贡献包括：空中轰炸雷达，远程导航系统，预警雷达，海岸防御雷达。

Radar detectives

It is sometimes said the atomic bomb ended World War II, but radar won the war. Much of that technology came from MIT’s Radiation Laboratory – intentionally given a misleading moniker to divert attention away from the lab’s true focus, on microwave radar technology development. Its contributions included airborne-bombing radar, a long-range navigation system, coastal defense radars, and early-warning radars. After the war ended, the Rad Lab closed. Seven years later, Lincoln Laboratory was founded, based on many of the same organizational principles and with many of the same employees.

No. 47 贵重的礼物

德州仪器（Texas Instruments）创始人之一：塞西尔•格林（Cecil H. Green）在1920年就从麻省理工获得了两个学位，当他在2003年去世的时候，他与他的妻子对麻省理工的捐赠总价值相当于现在9100万美元。他回报母校的主要目的之一就是支持对女性的教育事业。

Calculated gifts

After amassing a fortune as a cofounder of Texas Instruments, with its ubiquitous calculators, Cecil H. Green made major gifts to institutions of higher education and medicine. Green, who earned two degrees from MIT in the 1920s, gave handsomely to his alma mater. At the time of his death in 2003, MIT said, Green and his wife, Ida, had given the equivalent of $91 million in current US dollars. (The tallest MIT building is named for the Greens.) One of his priorities was educating women; he funded a women’s graduate residence hall and fellowships for women in science and engineering.

No. 46 优秀的社区

如果肯德尔广场（Kendall Square）算是郊区的办公园，这将是世界上影响力最大的办公园之一。许多世界著名的科技公司都在这里拥有办公室，比如谷歌和微软。当然这是因为麻省理工大学就像磁铁一样吸引着他们。麻省理工大学是帮助创建这个最具创新能力的社区的关键。

Good neighbor

If Kendall Square were a suburban office park, it would be one of the most high-powered ones in the world. Who’s got offices there? Akamai. Amgen. Biogen Idec. Draper Laboratory. Fidelity Investments. Genzyme. Google. Microsoft. Novartis. Not to mention, of course, the magnet for all of them: MIT. The Kendall Square Association has 130 members, and MIT is the linchpin that helped build up one of the most innovative neighborhoods in the country. More than half of Cambridge’s tax revenue comes from Kendall Square, and most of the city’s largest taxpayers are there.

No. 45 E*Trade金融公司

威廉•波特（William A. Porter）和他的妻子琼（Joan）毕业于麻省理工大学的斯隆学者课程（Sloan Fellows Program）。他们对电子证卷交易进行了彻底的变革，并创建了E*Trade金融公司。

E*Trade

William A. Porter, pictured with his wife, Joan, who helped revolutionize digital stock trading with the founding of E*Trade, graduated from MIT’s Sloan Fellows Program.

No. 44 工程学院的成功

麻省理工大学开创了职业技术学院的想法，向世界展示了数学和科学课程的重要性，以及工程学科在国家发展中的重要性。麻省理工大学在1882年率先开创电气工程课程，1914年开创航空工程课程，1935年开创核物理课程。

Engineered for success

In many ways, MIT pioneered the very idea of a polytechnical institute, showing the world that math and science should be at the core of an undergraduate education and that engineering would be critical in the development of the country. MIT pioneered curriculums in electrical engineering (1882), aeronautical engineering (1914), and nuclear physics (1935), among others. “It was the right institution at the right time and the right place that understood the importance of engineering, which was going to be crucial to the industrial transformation of the United States,” says John Thelin, author of “A History of American Higher Education.”

No. 43 都市传说

凯文•林奇（Kevin Lynch）是麻省理工大学城市设计专业的教授。他在1960年写了一本书：《城市形象（The Image of the City）》，这本书鼓励市民参与到城市建设当中，而不是由任由政府决定城市的重大建设项目。

Urban legend

Kevin Lynch, an MIT urban design professor, wrote the 1960 book, “The Image of the City,” which helped launch the argument against major government urban-renewal programs by encouraging greater citizen participation.

No. 42 什么是“巨大”的想法

阿兰•古斯（Alan Guth）是麻省理工大学的物理学家。他在1981年提出了关于宇宙的通胀理论，并以此为依据，对于“宇宙大爆炸”的理论所带来的谜题进行了解答。

What's the 'big' idea

Alan Guth, an MIT physicist, in 1981 came up with the inflation theory about the universe to answer puzzling questions created by the big bang theory.

No. 41 炸弹

曼森•本尼迪克特（Manson Benedict）是第二次世界大战期间的一位麻省理工大学的研究生研究员。他的研究成果最终导致了投放在日本的原子弹的发明以及十年后核能源的和平应用。

The Bomb

Manson Benedict, an MIT graduate researcher during World War II, discovered the process that ultimately led to the creation of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan and the peaceful application of nuclear energy for decades after.

（阅读原文有更多精彩）