(MONEY Magazine) – Wander the Smithsonian complex in Washington, D.C. and you'll see the spirit of invention at its finest, from Stone Age tools to spaceships. But you don't need a museum to appreciate innovation. Cruise the supermarket, visit your doctor's office, head for the mall. Today's great ideas are all around you.

What fuels all this creativity? Perhaps, as the saying goes, it's necessity. Just as likely it's the profit motive. In the past year alone, companies unveiled some 31,400 new consumer goods. More than 13,000 foods--a record--were introduced. The government issued 165,504 patents in 2000, and it expects to award nearly double that--another record: 327,500--in 2001. And despite the bear market, nearly 200 companies went public during the 12 months ended July 31.

Novelty and invention have become constants unto themselves, as more and more people pump out new technologies, gadgets and concepts. Faced with so many choices, how do you know what's truly worthwhile? That's where we come in: MONEY staffers spent months in search of the best of everything new, from stocks and funds (and even CEOs) to televisions, wines and websites.

Some of the ideas of the past year or so promise to improve our lives in dramatic ways. Other arrivals are humble improvements to ordinary life. But great or small, these innovations point the way to our future--and in the process tell a fascinating story about us today.