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.

Famous inventionsNobel Prize winnersScientific conceptsKey inventors

Inventors and Scientific Discoveries Questions

Multiple choice social studies north america voyages and discoveries scientific inventions and technological developments india's contemporary economic condition

Who invented a new method of making steel?

  1. Henry Cort

  2. Henry Bessemer

  3. James Hargreaves

  4. Abraham Derby
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Sir Henry Bessemer was a prominent British engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He developed the first cost-efficient process for the manufacture of steel in 1856.

Multiple choice social studies north america voyages and discoveries scientific inventions and technological developments india's contemporary economic condition

Who invented the steam locomotive engine?

  1. James Watt

  2. Abraham Derby

  3. Faraday

  4. George Stephenson
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The first commercially successful steam locomotive named as  "Locomotion No. 1" was created by George Stephenson. It was used to carry passengers on a first public rail line in Britain, between the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825 .

Multiple choice social studies north america voyages and discoveries scientific inventions and technological developments india's contemporary economic condition

Who invented the safety lamp?

  1. Humphrey Davy

  2. Faraday

  3. Henry Cort

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

The first ever prototype of Davy’s miner’s safety lamp. Created in 1815, it was designed to be lit safely for miners to use without allowing the heat from the flame to explode the concentration of methane gas often found as miners dug deeper.

Multiple choice social studies north america voyages and discoveries scientific inventions and technological developments india's contemporary economic condition

Who carried out an experiment to substitute coke for charcoal?

  1. Davy

  2. Abraham Derby

  3. Henry Cort

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

This study was carried out to determine the influence of using charcoal as a supplementary fuel on the microstructure and reduction properties of sinter. 


The primary fuel was coke breeze with 0, 20, 30 and 40% replacement of weight input with charcoal to produce sinter. 

Experimental results indicate that when the replacement percentage of charcoal to coke breeze increased from 0 to 40%, the porosity and FeO content of sinter also rose. 

These changes result in an enhancement from 79.8 to 84.3% for the reducibility index due to the increased reducing surface area. In addition, the reduction degradation of sinter also improves since degradation during crystalline transformation is restricted. 

Therefore, replacing coke breeze with charcoal is able to improve the reducing properties of sinter, which is beneficial to small and large blast furnace operation.

Multiple choice biology aids to health immunization, treatment and antibiotics antibodies and antitoxin prevention and treatment of disease

Penicillin was discovered by 

  1. S. Waksman

  2. Robert Koch

  3. Louis Pasteur

  4. Alexander Fleming
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Penicillin is a secondary metabolite of certain species of Penicillium and is produced when the growth of the fungus is inhibited by stress. It is not produced during active growth. Production is also limited by feedback in the synthesis pathway of penicillin. It was discovered by Alexander Fleming.

So, the correct option is 'Alexander Fleming'.

Multiple choice zoology mutation genome projects human genome project human genome project and dna fingerprinting

Human genome project was discovered by

  1. Francis Collins and Roderick

  2. Watson and Crick

  3. Beadle and Tatum

  4. Paul Berg and Wollman
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The Human Genome Project was a massive international research effort, and Francis Collins served as the director of the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute during the project.

Multiple choice zoology the paths traversed by life mutational theory of evolution theories of evolution other theories of evolution

Hugo de Vries' contribution is :

  1. Theory of Natural selection

  2. Theory of Mutations

  3. Law of Dominance

  4. Law of segregation
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Hugo de Vries gave a theory of evolution, called 'Mutation theory' which states that evolution is a jerky process where new varieties and species are formed by mutation.

So. the correct answer is 'Theory of Mutation'

Multiple choice zoology the paths traversed by life mutational theory of evolution theories of evolution other theories of evolution

Match the columns

Column I Column II
A. Hugo de Vries 1. Inheritance of acquired characters
B. Julian Huxley 2.  Multiplication of individual species in geographical proportion
C. Jean Baptiste 3. Mutation theory of evolution

  1. A=1, B=2, C=3

  2. A=2, B=3, C=1

  3. A=3, B=1, C=2

  4. A=3, B=2, C=1
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Hugo de Vries proposed the Mutation theory (A=3). Julian Huxley is associated with the modern synthesis and the multiplication of species (B=2). Jean Baptiste Lamarck proposed the inheritance of acquired characters (C=1).

Multiple choice zoology the paths traversed by life mutational theory of evolution theories of evolution other theories of evolution

Mutation theory was given by

  1. Darwin

  2. Lamarck

  3. Leuwenhoeck

  4. Hugo de Vries
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

According to Hugo de Vres, new species are not formed by continuous variations but by sudden appearance of variations, which he named as mutations. Hugo de Vries stated that mutations are heritable and persist in successive generations. Thus, option D is correct.

Multiple choice zoology the paths traversed by life mutational theory of evolution theories of evolution other theories of evolution

De Vries gave his mutation theory on organic evolution, while working on

  1. Alcea rosea

  2. Drosophila melanogaster

  3. Oenothera lamarckiana

  4. Pisum sativum
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Hugo de Vries was a Dutch botanist, one of the independent rediscoveries of Mendelism, put forward his views regarding the formation of new species in 1901. He also met some of the objections found in Darwins theory. According to him, new species are not formed by continuous variations but by sudden appearance of variations, which he named as mutations. 

Hugo de Vries stated that mutations are heritable and persist in successive generations. He conducted his experiments on Oenothera lamarckiana, (evening primrose) and found several aberrent types.

Multiple choice zoology the paths traversed by life mutational theory of evolution theories of evolution other theories of evolution

Name of the scientist, who gave 'Mutation Theory'.

  1. Wallace

  2. Mathus

  3. Darwin

  4. De Vries
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Mutation theory of evolution was proposed by Hugo De Vries. According to him, new species are not formed by continuous variations but by sudden appearance of variations which he named as mutations. Hugo de Vries stated that mutations are heritable and persist in successive generations. He conducted his experiments on Oenothera Lamarckiana, (evening primrose) and found several aberrant types. 

Therefore, the correct answer is option D.

Multiple choice zoology the paths traversed by life mutational theory of evolution theories of evolution other theories of evolution

Which of the following is a correct match?

  1. Darlington - DNA replication

  2. Mendel - mutation

  3. Morgan - father of genetics

  4. Hugo de Vries - Oenothera lamarckiana
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The most successful post-Darwinian saltationist was Hugo de Vries. He dominated evolutionary thought during the first decade of the twentieth century. His theories, which achieved an enormous popularity, grew out of his own experimentation using evening primrose (Oenothera lamarckiana). Thus, option D is correct. 'Father of Genetics' is Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. He deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist and science author, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity. Cyril Dean Darlington was an English biologist, geneticist and eugenicist, who discovered the mechanics of chromosomal crossover, its role in inheritance and therefore its importance to evolution. Thus, other options are wrong.