Editorial

Nearly two and a half thousand years ago the great philosopher and teacher, Plato, said( among myriad other musings) that necessity is them other of invention. I would add that perhaps bore dom is, too, but either way it is mostly a win situation. Over this past extraordinary year inventors have had time on their hands to potter and therefore come up with some cunning new ideas. These range from face masks with clear plastic windows over the mouth so that the deaf can lip-read while keeping safe; am ask with as lit that automatically opens like lips when a fork comes near; hands-free door handles so supermarket fridge scan be opened with an elbow; many robotic solutions for the delivery of goods; a range of smartphone aps; and some silly but effective ideas such as attaching two-metre pool noodles to hats so patrons in a German pub could keep their social distancing. There were sanitising, hand-washing and ventilator projects; smart helmets for police so they could scan passers-by to detect high temperatures; and a huge rise in the use of robotic solutions in allaspectsoflife. It’ s not the first time a crisis has fine-tuned creative minds. Isaac Newton was sent home from university while the Spanish Flu raged. He subsequently said the year-plus he spent away was his ann us mira bi lis,t he‘ year of wonders ’, when he came up with several theories–including that incident under the apple tree–that made him one of history’ s greatest scientists.