Take into account how long the invention/discovery has been around. Something very recent probably wouldn't have had the impact of something invented/discovered in the 1500's or whatever (and is still effective, obv).

[edit]: Also, don't cop out and say something like 'antibiotics' or even worse, 'medicine', as those encompass a whole slew of different discoveries. Be specific.

[edit 2]: ok, air bags is probably not the right answer either, but this was the first thing I could think of that was easy to find a specific number. According to http://blog.airbagsolutions.com/arch...ally-save.aspx, approximately 20,000 lives were saved between 1987-2005 using airbags, and another website claims about 2,000 lives each year are saved using airbags. So taken into the present, we're probably approaching about 30,000 lives saved. So I'll use air-bags as a jumping-off point.

Printing press and the wide spread of knowledge.

/thread

I would think something like immunizations, or access to a diverse and reliable food source would be near the top of the list.

First thought is nukes, but there's probably a better answer. Obviously if we all blow each other up, this answer changes.

I think it would be tough to be more off than you are.

Gotta be either fire or antibiotics or something else medical like that.

Lightning rod... srsly.

lol at lightning rod saving more people than medicine.

antibiotics

I'd guess it's definitely not the lightning rod. You know, when people say something is less likely than getting struck by lightning, they're not joking.

Maybe the smallpox vaccine?

Well I was thinking antibiotics obviously, but that's mainly a 20th century discovery, and plus with the rise in antibiotics, certain bacteria have become more resistant and damaging, so you have to take that into account too.

And also you can't just say 'medicine', as that's not a specific invention or discovery. Yes, obviously the field of medicine has saved millions of lives, but what specifically?

Sooga,

One thing you have to realize is that there are more people alive from 1900-today than there were for many centuries before that, put together. Anything that saves lives today is going to dwarf whatever you could do in the past.

yup

Right, and so anything from centuries ago that saved lives (and assuming it's still effective) would save even more lives today.

penicillin

that's game

Some kind of immunization is probably up there...

The smallpox vaccine is actually a very good answer. To think of the devastation this disease would have wreaked on humanity if there were no vaccine is truly frightening. The vaccine was perfected in 1796, so that's over 200 years of lifesaving. Considering that 400,000 people died of smallpox every year in Europe alone in the 18th century, consider the devastation this epidemic would have wreaked on all of humanity had it not been defeated. You'd have to think the number would be somewhere in the 1-2 billion range, and that's if it didn't completely wipe out all of humanity.

The only other thing that came to mind was electricity. Anyone that has ever been in a blackout knows how helpless we are without it.

Was my first thought upon seeing this thread. Right after the lightning rod, of course.

According to that commercial plastic has gotta be up there.

And if you think about it, the commercial is probably right.

Clean drinking water.

Ok, you guys are all harping on my bringing up the lightning rod, but it's not just the 'oh noes i got hit by lightning' factor (in fact, that's probably a very small factor). If lightning hits a hospital with no lightning rod, how many people die? If lightning hits a 911 response call center, how many people die? That's what I meant what I included that.

Man, if you're gonna change lightning rod to airbag you might want to give the seat belt a mention.

For the purpose of this thread: SEAT BELT > AIR BAG.

please be a troll

Actually, the more I think about it, with all the tall, important buildings out there today and our reliance on electrical devices, lightning rods might not be a very bad answer at all.

The Human Penis.

So far, I think this beats everything else mentioned.

I guess take that one step further if you could call them inventions or discoveries:

Language (spoken and written)