The 50 Best Inventions of 2010

The squirt gun has gone professional. Troops in Afghanistan are using a new "water disrupter" to disable roadside bombs. The clear plastic device is filled with water and a small explosive charge that, when set off, generates a thin blade of water that pulverizes the target. Developed at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, the so-called fluid-blade disablement tool was invented by Steve Todd, an engineer with extensive Navy experience fighting IEDs; Chance Hughs, a retired Navy Seal explosives expert on contract to Sandia; and Sandia mechanical engineer Juan Carlos Jakaboski. So far, TEAM Technologies of Albuquerque, N.M., has produced about 7,000 of the $58 units for shipment to Afghanistan.