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Discoveries and Inventions

A compact, tabular revision of major scientific discoveries, inventions and their discoverers or inventors, with years where standard, for CAPF Paper I General Science

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SubjectGeneral Science
RevisionGeneral ScienceDiscoveriesInventionsScientistsPaper 1

One screen per section. Cover the right column and test yourself. Attributions and dates below follow standard reference usage; where multiple claimants or dates exist, the conventionally examined answer is given. For any contested attribution, verify the latest scholarship.

A useful distinction the exam exploits: a discovery is finding something that already existed in nature (gravity, electron, blood circulation); an invention is creating a device or method that did not exist (telephone, dynamo, vaccine technique).

Physics: laws and phenomena

Discovery / phenomenon Credited to
Law of gravitation, laws of motion Isaac Newton
Theory of relativity Albert Einstein
Photoelectric effect (explanation) Albert Einstein
Quantum theory Max Planck
Electron J J Thomson (1897)
Proton Ernest Rutherford
Neutron James Chadwick (1932)
Atomic nucleus Ernest Rutherford
Radioactivity Henri Becquerel; advanced by Marie and Pierre Curie
X-rays Wilhelm Roentgen (1895)
Raman effect (scattering of light) C V Raman (1928)
Archimedes' principle Archimedes

Chemistry and elements

Discovery Credited to
Periodic table (periodic law) Dmitri Mendeleev
Oxygen Joseph Priestley / Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Hydrogen Henry Cavendish
Radium and Polonium Marie and Pierre Curie
Atomic theory (modern) John Dalton
Law of conservation of mass Antoine Lavoisier
Penicillin Alexander Fleming (1928)
Structure of DNA (double helix) James Watson and Francis Crick (1953)

Biology and medicine

Discovery Credited to
Circulation of blood William Harvey
Cell Robert Hooke
Bacteria, microscopy of microbes Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Vaccination (smallpox) Edward Jenner
Theory of evolution by natural selection Charles Darwin
Laws of heredity (genetics) Gregor Mendel
Malaria parasite transmission by mosquito Ronald Ross
Tuberculosis and cholera bacteria Robert Koch
Rabies and anthrax vaccines, pasteurisation Louis Pasteur
Insulin Banting and Best
Polio vaccine Jonas Salk (injected); Albert Sabin (oral)
Blood groups (ABO system) Karl Landsteiner

Inventions: machines and power

Invention Inventor
Steam engine (improved) James Watt
Dynamo / electromagnetic induction Michael Faraday
Electric bulb (incandescent) Thomas Alva Edison
Telephone Alexander Graham Bell
Radio (wireless telegraphy) Guglielmo Marconi
Aeroplane (powered flight) Wright Brothers (1903)
Diesel engine Rudolf Diesel
Television John Logie Baird
Printing press (movable type, Europe) Johannes Gutenberg
Dynamite Alfred Nobel

Inventions: communication and computing

Invention Inventor / origin
Telegraph and Morse code Samuel Morse
World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee (1989)
Mechanical computer (Analytical Engine) Charles Babbage ("father of the computer")
Transistor Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley
Laser Theodore Maiman (first working laser)
Ballpoint pen Laszlo Biro
Photography (early) Louis Daguerre / Nicephore Niepce

Indian scientists to remember

Person Associated with
C V Raman Raman effect; Nobel Physics 1930
J C Bose Plant response to stimuli; early radio waves research
S N Bose Bose-Einstein statistics; "boson" named after him
S Chandrasekhar Chandrasekhar limit (stellar mass); Nobel 1983
Har Gobind Khorana Genetic code; Nobel Medicine 1968
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Ribosome structure; Nobel Chemistry 2009
Homi J Bhabha Father of India's nuclear programme
Vikram Sarabhai Father of India's space programme
M S Swaminathan Father of India's Green Revolution

Cross-references

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