Inventions change how we live, work, play and think about what’s possible. Every year, TIME magazine lists the 100 best inventions. What did the magazine choose this year? Let’s take a look.

Easier to read

Reading can be a big challenge for tens of millions of people. They may have poor vision （视力）or reading difficulties. But OrCam Read can help them! This is the first reading pen with a smart camera and an AI system. After scanning（扫描）a page of text with the click of a button, it can read the text aloud to the user. You don’t need to connect it to the Internet. You can use it offline at home, work, school, or even in stores when you need to read a price tag（标签）.

Sweet idea

Honey is produced by bees. But today’s beekeeping business is not good for these hard-working insects（昆虫）. Bee farmers may kill them after harvesting（收获）honey because it’s cheaper than feeding the bees through the winter. To save bees, US company MeliBio has found a way to make the world’s first bee-free honey. They used synthetic biology（合成生物学）to create honey directly from plants. This kind of honey tastes just like the real one, and it is healthy, too.

Keep you calm

When you feel angry or unhappy, what do you do about it? Scientists say you can try to calm others. This can help you calm down. That’s why Purrble was invented. This bear-like toy has 9 sensors. It has a quick “heartbeat” and can respond（反应）to your touch. As you hold and pet it, its heartbeat slows. And it purrs（发出咕噜声）like a cat. It sounds like it really enjoys your touch! Through petting Purrble, you will realize your own feelings and learn how to feel calm yourself.

How do we know the time? A clock, a watch or a mobile phone can help us. However, many years ago there were no clocks and knowing the time was not so easy. Over the centuries people have developed different ways of telling the time.

About 5,500 years ago, the Egyptians invented the sun clock. This was a tall stone building. Its shadow (影子) showed the movement of the sun. So people were able to know midday. The Egyptians made a sundial (日晷) about 3,500 years ago. It was smaller than the sun clock and could let people know the time for half a day. On cloudy days or at night, it was impossible to tell the time with a sun clock or a sundial. Water clocks were the first clocks not to use the sun. The idea is simple. Water flows(流动) from one bottle to another. When the water reaches a certain level, it shows the hours. The Egyptians used water clocks about 3,400 years ago. These clocks were popular in the Middle East and China. But they failed to make people know the exact time.

In the 13th century, the mechanical clock was invented. This was more exact, but it was expensive to make one. Over the next few centuries it was developed. For example, springs (发条) were added around 1500. This enabled people to get the correct time and allowed clocks to be smaller. In 1927, the first quartz(石英) clock was developed. Clocks became cheaper to build. It was also cheaper for ordinary people to own a clock. People began depending on them more and more to run businesses, markets and so on. More recently, in 1956, came the digital clock. And nowadays satellites send our mobile phones the time to the exact second.

There has been a lot of progress in timekeeping. Clocks are always changing but some things never change. Many of us still have trouble getting out of bed on time and not being late for school or work.