General Awareness · Science General

Inventors and Scientific Discoveries

4,616 Questions

This hub provides questions related to great inventors and their scientific discoveries. It covers the inventors of the telephone, radio, and microchips, alongside Nobel Prize winners. These facts are crucial for the general awareness section of major competitive exams.

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Inventors and Scientific Discoveries Questions

Multiple choice

Who discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic used to treat diseases?

  1. Gregor Mendel

  2. Alexander Fleming

  3. Joseph Lister

  4. Ronald Ross
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 when he noticed mold (Penicillium notatum) killing bacteria in a petri dish. This was the first antibiotic used to treat diseases, revolutionizing medicine. Mendel discovered genetics, Lister pioneered antiseptic surgery, and Ross identified malaria transmission via mosquitoes.

Multiple choice

Scientist who discovered X-ray?

  1. Marie Curie

  2. Wilhelm Roentgen

  3. Helmholtz

  4. David Hilbert
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895 while experimenting with cathode ray tubes. He noticed they could pass through solid objects and create images of bones. The 'X' stood for unknown. Marie Curie studied radioactivity, Helmholtz worked on thermodynamics and physiology, and Hilbert was a mathematician.

Multiple choice

Scientist known for his theory of uncertainty is

  1. Neil Bohr

  2. Rutherford

  3. John Dalton

  4. Werner Heisenberg
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Werner Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in 1927, which states that the more precisely you measure a particle's position, the less precisely you can know its momentum, and vice versa. This is a fundamental limit of quantum mechanics arising from the wave-particle duality of matter. Niels Bohr (option A, misspelled as 'Neil') developed the atomic model, Rutherford discovered the nucleus, and Dalton proposed atomic theory.

Multiple choice

Who discovered the electron?

  1. Thomson

  2. Goldstein

  3. Chadwick

  4. Rutherford
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

J. J. Thomson discovered the electron in 1897 through his study of cathode rays, which he found were composed of negatively charged particles, much smaller than atoms.

Multiple choice

Alfred Noble invented

  1. Dynamite

  2. Railway Engine

  3. Diesel Engine

  4. Motor Cycle
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1867. The other options - railway engines, diesel engines, and motorcycles - were invented by different people during different time periods.

Multiple choice

Who won the Nobel Prize in 2004?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

In 1991, Buck and Axel were the first to identify the genes that encode the odorant (smell) receptors in the brain. Receptors can be thought of as the specialised "doors" or "entryways" into brain cells that give particular substances, like the chemicals that make up odors, access to the inner workings of olfactory brain cells. That discovery sparked a renaissance of research into the sense of smell, and Buck and Axel won the Nobel Prize for their work in 2004. 

  1. Buck

  2. Axel

  3. Buck and Axel

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Option (3) is the correct answer. It is given in the last line of the passage.

Multiple choice

Which among the following is not an accidental scientific discovery?

  1. Cinema

  2. X-Ray

  3. Penicillin

  4. Rubber
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Cinema was developed through deliberate technological experimentation by the Lumière brothers. X-rays (Roentgen), Penicillin (Fleming), and Rubber vulcanization (Goodyear) were all discovered accidentally while researchers were investigating other phenomena.

Multiple choice

The man who invented the motor car was

  1. Henry Ford

  2. Michael Faraday

  3. Wright Brothers

  4. Karl Benz
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Karl Benz built the first practical automobile with an internal combustion engine in 1885-1886 (Benz Patent-Motorwagen). Henry Ford later popularized automobiles through assembly-line mass production but did not invent the motor car itself.

Multiple choice

Match the Group-I with Group-II and select the correct answer using the codes given below. ||| |---|---| |Group-I |Group-II| |P. Leeuwenhoek|1. first saw and described a living cell| |Q. Kolliker|2. named endoplasmic reticulum| |R. Porter|3. discovered ribosomes| |S. Robinson and Brown|4. firstly observed mitochondria|

  1. P - 1, Q - 3, R - 2, S - 4

  2. P - 3, Q - 4, R - 1, S - 2

  3. P - 1, Q - 4, R - 2, S - 3

  4. P - 2, Q - 1, R - 4, S - 3

  5. P - 1, Q - 3, R - 4, S - 2
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Leeuwenhoek first saw and described a living cell. Mitochondria was first observed by Kolliker in 1850 as granular structure in striated muscles. Endoplasmic reticulum was discovered by Porter and Thompson in 1945 and was named in 1953 by Porter. Robinson and Brown discovered ribosomes in 1953 in plant cell and by Palade in animal cell (1955). Hence, the sequence P - 1, Q - 4, R - 2, S - 3 is correctly matched.