How We Chose the 100 Best Inventions of 2021

Every year, TIME highlights inventions that are making the world better, smarter and a bit more fun. (See last year’s list here.)

To assemble our list of 2021’s Best Inventions, we solicited nominations across a variety of categories from TIME’s editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process. We then evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, creativity, efficacy, ambition and impact.

The result is a list of 100 groundbreaking inventions—including vaccines for COVID-19 and malaria, an emotional support robot for hospitalized children, an environmentally friendly dye for jeans and a brand new pasta shape—that are changing how we live, work, play and think about what’s possible.

Get a print of TIME’s 2021 Best Inventions cover here