Standouts include a gravity-defying ‘hoverboard’ which is a skateboard called Hendo, which has the ability to hover 1 inch off the ground.The creator is an architect who wanted to build a product for safe building inspection.

Indian-designed Mangalyaan (meaning Mars in Sanskrit) or the Mars Orbiter is another invention cited for its creating new thresholds for exploring space.

And if space exploration doesn’t sound brainy enough, try Lockheed Martin’s compact nuclear fusion reactor. Despite doubts about its feasibility, it is a project that has excited and intrigued the world due to the potential for a contraption that than be fitted onto a tractor trailer, producing 100 megawatts of power sufficient to power a population of 100,000.

Whimsical products such as a ring that helps alert the wearer when a phone call comes in on the mobile, the Korean-invented selfie stick, plus a wireless charging system using magnetic resonance, and a tracker aimed at correcting bad postures, are among 2014’s best inventions picked by Time.

Here’s one for humanity – a super banana engineered by Australian biogeneticist at Queensland University with the help of Ugandan scientists – which will deliver vitamin A to Africa where deficiency of the Vitamin A is causing children under the age of 5 to risk going blind. The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

For a full list, go to Time.com