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Important Inventions and Discoveries: 50+ Scientists, Years & Countries
Complete table-format notes on major inventions and discoveries with inventor/discoverer, year, and country for Kerala PSC exams.
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— Complete table-format notes on major inventions and discoveries with inventor/discoverer, year, and country for Kerala PSC exams.
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#Discoveries
#Scientists
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Questions on inventions and discoveries appear in virtually every Kerala PSC exam. This guide presents 50+ important entries in table format for quick revision, along with categorized groupings to aid memory.
Major Inventions — Master Table
| Invention | Inventor | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printing Press (movable type) | Johannes Gutenberg | c. 1440 | Germany |
| Telescope | Hans Lippershey (first patent); Galileo improved it | 1608 | Netherlands |
| Microscope (compound) | Zacharias Janssen | c. 1590 | Netherlands |
| Thermometer | Galileo Galilei (air thermoscope); Daniel Fahrenheit (mercury) | 1593 / 1714 | Italy / Germany |
| Steam Engine (practical) | James Watt (improved Newcomen’s design) | 1769 | Scotland/Britain |
| Spinning Jenny | James Hargreaves | 1764 | England |
| Locomotive (steam) | George Stephenson | 1814 | England |
| Telegraph | Samuel Morse | 1837 | USA |
| Telephone | Alexander Graham Bell | 1876 | USA (Scottish-born) |
| Phonograph | Thomas Edison | 1877 | USA |
| Electric Bulb (practical) | Thomas Edison | 1879 | USA |
| Radio | Guglielmo Marconi | 1895 | Italy |
| X-Ray | Wilhelm Rontgen | 1895 | Germany |
| Cinema (Cinematograph) | Lumiere Brothers (Auguste and Louis) | 1895 | France |
| Aeroplane | Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur) | 1903 | USA |
| Television | John Logie Baird (mechanical); Philo Farnsworth (electronic) | 1926 / 1927 | Scotland / USA |
| Penicillin | Alexander Fleming | 1928 | Scotland/Britain |
| Jet Engine | Frank Whittle (UK); Hans von Ohain (Germany) | 1937 / 1939 | Britain / Germany |
| Computer (electronic, programmable) | Konrad Zuse (Z3); later ENIAC by Eckert and Mauchly | 1941 / 1946 | Germany / USA |
| Transistor | John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley | 1947 | USA |
| Laser | Theodore Maiman (first working laser) | 1960 | USA |
| Internet (ARPANET) | US Department of Defense / DARPA | 1969 | USA |
| World Wide Web | Tim Berners-Lee | 1989 | UK (at CERN, Switzerland) |
| Dynamite | Alfred Nobel | 1867 | Sweden |
| Safety Pin | Walter Hunt | 1849 | USA |
| Bicycle | Karl von Drais (first design); various later improvements | 1817 | Germany |
| Diesel Engine | Rudolf Diesel | 1893 | Germany |
| Fountain Pen | Lewis Waterman (practical design) | 1884 | USA |
| Nylon | Wallace Carothers (DuPont) | 1935 | USA |
| Ballpoint Pen | Laszlo Biro | 1938 | Hungary |
| Helicopter (practical) | Igor Sikorsky | 1939 | USA (Russian-born) |
| Nuclear Reactor | Enrico Fermi | 1942 | USA (Italian-born) |
| Microprocessor | Ted Hoff (Intel 4004) | 1971 | USA |
| DNA Fingerprinting | Alec Jeffreys | 1984 | UK |
Major Scientific Discoveries — Master Table
| Discovery | Discoverer | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circulation of Blood | William Harvey | 1628 | England |
| Gravity (Law of Gravitation) | Isaac Newton | 1687 | England |
| Oxygen | Joseph Priestley (independently: Carl Scheele) | 1774 | England / Sweden |
| Vaccination (Smallpox) | Edward Jenner | 1796 | England |
| Electromagnetism | Hans Christian Oersted | 1820 | Denmark |
| Electromagnetic Induction | Michael Faraday | 1831 | England |
| Theory of Evolution (Natural Selection) | Charles Darwin | 1859 | England |
| Pasteurization / Germ Theory | Louis Pasteur | 1864 | France |
| Periodic Table | Dmitri Mendeleev | 1869 | Russia |
| Radioactivity | Henri Becquerel | 1896 | France |
| Radium | Marie Curie and Pierre Curie | 1898 | France (Polish-born Marie) |
| Electron | J.J. Thomson | 1897 | England |
| Quantum Theory | Max Planck | 1900 | Germany |
| Blood Groups (ABO) | Karl Landsteiner | 1901 | Austria |
| Theory of Relativity (Special) | Albert Einstein | 1905 | Germany/Switzerland |
| Theory of Relativity (General) | Albert Einstein | 1915 | Germany |
| Atomic Nucleus | Ernest Rutherford | 1911 | New Zealand/UK |
| Neutron | James Chadwick | 1932 | England |
| Structure of DNA (Double Helix) | James Watson and Francis Crick | 1953 | USA / UK |
| Raman Effect | C.V. Raman | 1928 | India |
| Proton | Ernest Rutherford | 1919 | New Zealand/UK |
| Insulin | Frederick Banting and Charles Best | 1921 | Canada |
| Vitamin C | Albert Szent-Gyorgyi | 1932 | Hungary |
| Cholera Bacillus | Robert Koch | 1883 | Germany |
| TB Bacillus | Robert Koch | 1882 | Germany |
| Malaria Parasite transmission | Ronald Ross | 1897 | Britain (born in India) |
Indian Scientists and Their Contributions
| Scientist | Contribution | Year / Period |
|---|---|---|
| C.V. Raman | Raman Effect (scattering of light) — Nobel Prize 1930 | 1928 |
| Jagadish Chandra Bose | Radio waves research; plant physiology | 1890s–1900s |
| Homi Bhabha | Father of Indian nuclear programme | 1940s–1960s |
| Vikram Sarabhai | Father of Indian space programme (ISRO founder) | 1960s |
| S. Ramanujan | Mathematical genius; number theory, infinite series | 1910s |
| A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | Missile programme (Agni, Prithvi); “Missile Man of India” | 1980s–1990s |
| Satyendra Nath Bose | Bose-Einstein statistics; boson named after him | 1924 |
| M. Visvesvaraya | Engineering genius; built KRS dam | Early 1900s |
| Har Gobind Khorana | Gene synthesis — Nobel Prize 1968 (Indian-born, worked in USA) | 1960s |
| Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | Chandrasekhar Limit (stellar physics) — Nobel Prize 1983 | 1930s |
| Venkatraman Ramakrishnan | Ribosome structure — Nobel Prize 2009 (Indian-born, British-American) | 2000s |
Inventions Grouped by Category
Communication
| Invention | Inventor | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Telegraph | Samuel Morse | 1837 |
| Telephone | Alexander Graham Bell | 1876 |
| Radio | Guglielmo Marconi | 1895 |
| Television | J.L. Baird / P. Farnsworth | 1926/1927 |
| Internet (ARPANET) | DARPA | 1969 |
| World Wide Web | Tim Berners-Lee | 1989 |
| Ray Tomlinson | 1971 |
Transport
| Invention | Inventor | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Engine | James Watt | 1769 |
| Steam Locomotive | George Stephenson | 1814 |
| Bicycle | Karl von Drais | 1817 |
| Motor Car (internal combustion) | Karl Benz | 1885 |
| Diesel Engine | Rudolf Diesel | 1893 |
| Aeroplane | Wright Brothers | 1903 |
| Helicopter | Igor Sikorsky | 1939 |
| Jet Engine | Frank Whittle | 1937 |
Medicine and Biology
| Discovery/Invention | Person | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Circulation | William Harvey | 1628 |
| Vaccination (Smallpox) | Edward Jenner | 1796 |
| Stethoscope | Rene Laennec | 1816 |
| Anaesthesia (Ether) | William Morton | 1846 |
| Pasteurization | Louis Pasteur | 1864 |
| X-Ray | Wilhelm Rontgen | 1895 |
| Blood Groups | Karl Landsteiner | 1901 |
| Penicillin | Alexander Fleming | 1928 |
| Insulin | Banting and Best | 1921 |
| DNA Structure | Watson and Crick | 1953 |
| Polio Vaccine (oral) | Albert Sabin | 1961 |
| Polio Vaccine (injectable) | Jonas Salk | 1955 |
| CT Scan | Godfrey Hounsfield | 1971 |
Physics and Energy
| Discovery/Invention | Person | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Law of Gravitation | Isaac Newton | 1687 |
| Electricity (current) | Alessandro Volta (voltaic pile/battery) | 1800 |
| Electromagnetic Induction | Michael Faraday | 1831 |
| Electric Bulb | Thomas Edison | 1879 |
| Radioactivity | Henri Becquerel | 1896 |
| Quantum Theory | Max Planck | 1900 |
| Theory of Relativity | Albert Einstein | 1905/1915 |
| Nuclear Fission | Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann | 1938 |
| Laser | Theodore Maiman | 1960 |
| Nuclear Reactor | Enrico Fermi | 1942 |
Nobel Prize — Key Indian-Origin Winners in Science
| Scientist | Field | Year | For |
|---|---|---|---|
| C.V. Raman | Physics | 1930 | Raman Effect |
| Har Gobind Khorana | Medicine | 1968 | Interpretation of genetic code |
| Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | Physics | 1983 | Stellar structure and evolution |
| Venkatraman Ramakrishnan | Chemistry | 2009 | Structure of ribosome |
Frequently Asked PSC Questions
Q: Who invented the telephone? A: Alexander Graham Bell (1876)
Q: Who discovered Penicillin? A: Alexander Fleming (1928)
Q: Who invented the printing press? A: Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1440)
Q: Raman Effect was discovered by? A: C.V. Raman (1928) — Nobel Prize 1930
Q: Who discovered X-rays? A: Wilhelm Rontgen (1895)
Q: Father of Indian space programme? A: Vikram Sarabhai
Q: Who discovered blood groups? A: Karl Landsteiner (1901)
Q: Who invented the World Wide Web? A: Tim Berners-Lee (1989)
Q: Who discovered the structure of DNA? A: James Watson and Francis Crick (1953)
Q: Who invented Dynamite? A: Alfred Nobel (1867) — Nobel Prize is named after him
Q: Who is known as the “Missile Man of India”? A: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Q: National Science Day (Feb 28) commemorates? A: Discovery of Raman Effect (February 28, 1928)
Exam Tips
- PSC loves “Who invented/discovered X?” format — memorize the person-invention pairs
- Alexander Fleming and Penicillin (1928) is one of the most asked questions across all levels
- C.V. Raman (1928/1930) is always asked in Kerala PSC — also remember National Science Day (Feb 28)
- Know the difference: Invention (creating something new) vs Discovery (finding something that existed)
- For Indian scientists: Raman, Bose, Bhabha, Sarabhai are the top 4 tested names
- Nobel Prize questions: Only C.V. Raman won the Nobel while being an Indian citizen — others had foreign citizenship at the time of award
- Gutenberg’s printing press (1440) is considered one of the most important inventions in history — frequently asked
- Wright Brothers (1903, Aeroplane) — remember Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as the location
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