Best Inventions of 2024

Every year, TIME magazine publishes a list of the year’s best inventions. Some of these address global problems. Others make life more fun. TIME for Kids has chosen nine of them here. Which one is your favorite?

Eco-Friendly Camping

Outdoor enthusiasts care about the environment. But camping equipment isn’t always eco-friendly. That’s why Nemo Equipment created its Endlesss Promise camping equipment. The backpacks and sleeping bags are made from polyester. That’s a recyclable material. And Nemo promises to repair, recycle, or resell the equipment. The company will take it back when customers are ready for something new. —By Jeff Wilser

Grow and Glow

Why stop and smell the roses when you can stop and smell the glowing petunias? By day, Firefly Petunias look like normal white flowers. When it gets dark, they glow like the moon. They might look magical. But their glow is a matter of science. The company Light Bio spliced petunia DNA with that of bioluminescent mushrooms. The result is glow-in-the-dark flowers you can grow at home. —JW

Water for All

People in some parts of the world lack clean water. That’s why three organizations created Filter Caps. Ogilvy Colombia, Baylor International, and Filsa Water worked together to develop them. The filters are small. They attach to the top of a water bottle. Users can fill the bottle with water. It can come from a river, lake, or pond. Inside the cap, chemicals filter out contaminants. That makes the water safe to drink. Each filter can clean five liters of water in a day.  —By Chris Norris

Mini Motor

Ready to go fast? Bimotal Elevate is a palm-size motor. It turns a standard pedal bike into an electric bike, or e-bike. The motor clips onto the wheel of a regular bike. It powers the bike as you pedal. It can get your bike up to 20 miles an hour. And it’s not just for fun. Search-and-rescue teams are using it. They’re motorizing gurneys. These are wheeled boards that carry injured people. A faster gurney means faster medical care. —By Chris Stokel-Walker

Bots on the Job

Imagine having a robot as your coworker. Some employers are making this a reality. That’s partly thanks to Digit, a humanoid bot created by Agility Robotics. Digit can be trained by AI to do a variety of tasks. In 2023, Amazon announced that it would train the bots to help with basic tasks in warehouses. Digit bots work separately from humans. That’s for safety purposes. But the bots may someday work with people.  —CS-W

Inclusive Exercise

Standard treadmills are designed for people to walk or jog in place. But people who use wheelchairs need exercise equipment too. Wheely-X is a treadmill designed for wheelchair users. It pairs with fitness apps. It offers workout games. Wheely-X was created by Kangsters. The company focuses on technology for users with disabilities. Kangsters is selling the product to private users, gyms, hospitals, and rehab centers.  —By Jamie Ducharme

Dazzling Disc

Frisbees have been flung around parks, beaches, and yards for decades. But the Tosy company wants to reinvent the game. The Flying Disc has 36 red, green, and blue LED lights. They’re activated as it’s thrown. The lights produce more than 16 million color variations. A rechargeable battery doesn’t just keep the lights on. It activates a “lost mode” that helps you find the disc if it goes astray. Since October 2022, Tosy has sold 600,000 of the discs. —CS-W

Read in Color

It used to be hard to read a graphic novel on an electronic reading device, or e-reader. That’s no longer the case. Rakuten Kobo’s Libra Colour is the first mainstream e-reader with a color e-ink screen that gets illustrations just right. The device is small. But its colors pop. Users can enjoy their favorite comics and graphic novels without compromising the quality of the artwork. Kobo also sells a stylus. It pairs with the Libra Colour. You can use it to highlight text in color. —By Raymond Wong

Gaming on the Go

All video games need a screen, right? Not the Tecno Pocket Go gaming system. It has two parts. It has a controller. And it has a pair of augmented-reality glasses. The glasses show a huge display of the game you’re playing. So you don’t need a TV or computer to use it. The headset tracks your head movements. It simulates vibrations. These provide a better experience. Users can even sync the glasses to their phone and other devices. —By Ashley Mateo