The 1980s produced many new technologies, including the compact disc, the Apple Macintosh, the Windows operating system and DNA fingerprinting. The compact disc was introduced by Sony and Philips Consumer Electronics in 1980. In 1982, the first ever album on a CD was released. It was Billy Joel's "52nd Street." And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
The Apple Macintosh, introduced in 1984, was the first commercially successful personal computer. It featured graphic user interface and a mouse. Windows, also offering the function of a point-and-click mouse, entered the market in 1985.
In 1984, English geneticist Alec Jeffreys created the technique of DNA fingerprinting. Since then, DNA forensics have dramatically transformed law enforcement. Criminal cases have been solved, while men and women imprisoned for crimes they did not commit have been freed because of the science of DNA.
Two popular inventions of the 1980s that have greatly affected modern culture are the mobile phone and the World Wide Web. In 1983 Motorola unveiled the DynaTAC8000X, the first truly portable cellular phone. It was a big, clumsy thing. Since then it has become a decidedly smaller and indispensable device. Some 4.6 billion people around the world had cellular phones in 2010. The number was expected to rise to 5 billion in 2011. Cell phones give users not only the ability to communicate with people in all parts of the world, but also access to the Internet, texting plans, agendas, games, cameras, infrared, MP3 players and GPS. Users also have the ability to launch and obtain photos and videos.
The World Wide Web was developed in 1989 by computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee for international information sharing. Today, nearly 80 percent of North America's population is using the Internet, and the percentage is growing. The Internet has made lives better and more efficient while greatly increasing the amount of information users have at their fingertips.
The 1980s provided new options for treatment and prevention of diseases afflicting humankind. These included the artificial human heart and Prozac. In 1982 American surgeon Dr. William DeVries implanted the first artificial heart. His patient, Barney Baily Clark, survived 112 days with the device.
The introduction of Prozac in 1987 revolutionized the treatment of depression. Until that time, electric-shock therapy and tranquilizers were the treatments of choice. Prozac was the first in a series of selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which increase the activity of serotonin in the brain to relieve clinical depression. Some 4.5 million Americans take Prozac today, making it the most accepted psychiatric drug ever.
Entertainment in the 1980s thrived with innovative options, including high-definition television, CD players and, for little girls the world over, Cabbage Patch Kids. HDTV was introduced to the United States in 1981, offering a picture so precise, viewers felt like they could reach out and touch the action. With the development of the CD came the introduction of the CD player. The first ones were produced by Sony and had a hefty price tag of $900.
Cabbage Patch Kids, which went into full-scale production in 1983, offered little girls hours of imaginative playtime. Each $30 doll arrived with her own adoption certificate. Cabbage Patch Kids quickly became sought-after toys, with demand outstripping supply. Fights broke out that Christmas season as parents jammed toy stores in search of the dolls.