INVENTIONS & SCIENTISTS QUESTIONS
Do you know everything about Inventions or Scientists?
Play the Inventions & Scientists Quiz with your friends and give yourself a great advantage by selecting your starting question from different Inventions & Scientists Questions!
Play the Inventions & Scientists Quiz with your friends and give yourself a great advantage by selecting your starting question from different Inventions & Scientists Questions!
SELECT YOUR INVENTIONS & SCIENTISTS QUESTION
After changing his name to Conrad Hubert, Akiba Horowitz invented the flashlight. But what was it originally for?
Ralph Teetor invented automatic transmission and cruise control. What disability did he have?
He invented a sewing machine 12 years before Elias Howe, but never patented it. Worse, what did Walter Hunt invent, only to turn over the patent to a draftsman to pay off a $15 debt?
Joseph Banks sailed with James Cook, gathering samples, and helped establish what science as an academic discipline?
Canadian agronomist Charles Saunders created the Marquis variety of what crop?
Brooklyn chemist Robert Chesebrough lived to the age of 96 and credited his longevity to the fact that every day he ate which product, which he invented in 1879?
Despite having had his security clearance revoked in 1954, the Department of Energy awarded me the Fermi Award in 1963 for "contributions to theoretical physics as a teacher and originator of ideas, and for leadership of the Los Alamos Laboratory and the atomic energy program." Who am I?
As the author of "De Humanis Corporis Fabrica," Andreas Vesalius is called the father of the modern version of what field?
During WWI, a German named Joseph Pilates discovered an interesting use for old English hospital beds and springs. What did he use them for?
As a boy, Joseph Meister was saved from rabies by this man. But as caretaker of the institute named for his hero, Meister couldn't keep the Nazis out of the man's crypt, so he shot himself. So, who both saved Meister, and was indirectly responsible for his death, decades later?
What inventor nicknamed his daughter Marion "Dot" and called his son Thomas Jr "Dash"?
W Dorwin Teague invented the mimeograph machine and improved versions of everything from cash registers to can openers. Where would you be if you were sitting in a chair he invented?
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking lost a 1975 bet with fellow cosmologist Kip Thorne, when Cygnus X-1 turned out to be a black hole. What did Thorne win?
In 2004, Stephen Hawking handed over an encyclopedia when he conceded that he had lost a 1997 bet with John Preskill. It turns out quantum mechanics doesn't allow the destruction of information after all. What had Hawking thought might do that?
In a famous ecology bet in 1980, economist Julian Simon bet biologist Paul Ehrlich that the price of a portfolio of $200 of each of five mineral commodities would fall over the next 10 years. He even let Ehrlich pick the metals: copper, chrome, nickel, tin, and tungsten. The loser would pay the difference in the 1990 price. What happened?
In 1953, who walked into the Eagle Pub in Cambridge and announced, "We have discovered the secret of life!"?
Fred Waring, "the man who taught America how to sing" as the leader of a big-band called the Pennsylvanians, also invented a modern appliance. Which one?
In a 1999 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet"?
Named by Wendy Northcutt for a famed British biologist, what award goes to people who have improved the gene pool by "removing themselves from it in a spectacularly stupid manner"?
Thomas Newcomen called his invention a "fire engine." Today, we call it something else. What?
Maffeo Barberini was personally offended when Galileo put his ideas in the mouth of the fool Simplico in the book "Dialogue on Great World Systems." Unfortunately for Galileo, what position had his old friend since assumed?
Dean Kamen, who declared his home island "the Kingdom of North Dumpling," also introduced what flop technology in 2001?
Who combined nitroglycerin and gunpowder to create Swedish Blasting Oil?
As president of the Royal Society, what diarist's appears in the imprimatur on the title page of Newton's Principia Mathematica, which the Society published in 1687?
Although known as the father of microbiology and immunology, what scientist got his start in crystallography?
What gem did Ted Maiman use to invent the first laser?
What was Swiss mountaineer inventor George De Mestral inspired to create, after clearing the cockleburrs that stuck on his pants and his dog's coat?
In the 1760s, John Joseph Merlin demonstrated this invention of his while playing the violin at a masquerade ball. Unfortunately, he crashed into an expensive mirror, destroying it and nearly himself. What had he invented?
John Joseph Merlin opened Merlin's Mechanical Museum in the 1700s, where he displayed his efforts to build robots and a perpetual motion machine that ran on atmospheric-pressure changes. Where was it?
Using a design by Leonardo da Vinci, Andre-Jacques Garnerin became the first modern parachutist when he leaped from a balloon into Monceau Park in Paris. When?
In 1817 a German inventor named Drais de Sauerbrunn built the first bicycle, which he rather immodestly called the Draisienne. But it was a Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, added something to that bike that it was missing. What?
The US Patent Office denied Charles Hall a patent on what invention, because something similar had appeared in two Robert Heinlein novels, "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Double Star"?
JJ Thomson discovered what particle, which he likened to the plums in a plum pudding?
Napoleon III supported chemist Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, who found a new way to extract this metal. Completely smitten with it, he even had a table setting made from it. What is it?
Albert Einstein and his student Leo Szilard each revolutionized science, but in 1930 they also got a US patent for what kind of invention, which they sold to Electrolux?
Major General George Squier was the first passenger in an airplane on September 12, 1908 and bought the first planes in what is now the US Air Force. But in 1922, he invented something that we've cursed him for ever since. What?
Discussed by Vannevar Bush in the 1945 The Atlantic Monthly article "As We May Think," the Memex concept never flew, but did inspire what high-tech idea?
Known for his incompleteness theorem, what clinically paranoid mathematician starved to death in 1978 after his wife died because he trusted nobody else to prepare his food?
Named for Friedrich Mohs and determined with a sclerometer, what does the Mohs scale measure?
What metal did Georg Brandt in the 1730s while trying to prove that bismuth is not the only element that can be used to color glass blue?
Ralph Teetor invented automatic transmission and cruise control. What disability did he have?
He invented a sewing machine 12 years before Elias Howe, but never patented it. Worse, what did Walter Hunt invent, only to turn over the patent to a draftsman to pay off a $15 debt?
Joseph Banks sailed with James Cook, gathering samples, and helped establish what science as an academic discipline?
Canadian agronomist Charles Saunders created the Marquis variety of what crop?
Brooklyn chemist Robert Chesebrough lived to the age of 96 and credited his longevity to the fact that every day he ate which product, which he invented in 1879?
Despite having had his security clearance revoked in 1954, the Department of Energy awarded me the Fermi Award in 1963 for "contributions to theoretical physics as a teacher and originator of ideas, and for leadership of the Los Alamos Laboratory and the atomic energy program." Who am I?
As the author of "De Humanis Corporis Fabrica," Andreas Vesalius is called the father of the modern version of what field?
During WWI, a German named Joseph Pilates discovered an interesting use for old English hospital beds and springs. What did he use them for?
As a boy, Joseph Meister was saved from rabies by this man. But as caretaker of the institute named for his hero, Meister couldn't keep the Nazis out of the man's crypt, so he shot himself. So, who both saved Meister, and was indirectly responsible for his death, decades later?
What inventor nicknamed his daughter Marion "Dot" and called his son Thomas Jr "Dash"?
W Dorwin Teague invented the mimeograph machine and improved versions of everything from cash registers to can openers. Where would you be if you were sitting in a chair he invented?
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking lost a 1975 bet with fellow cosmologist Kip Thorne, when Cygnus X-1 turned out to be a black hole. What did Thorne win?
In 2004, Stephen Hawking handed over an encyclopedia when he conceded that he had lost a 1997 bet with John Preskill. It turns out quantum mechanics doesn't allow the destruction of information after all. What had Hawking thought might do that?
In a famous ecology bet in 1980, economist Julian Simon bet biologist Paul Ehrlich that the price of a portfolio of $200 of each of five mineral commodities would fall over the next 10 years. He even let Ehrlich pick the metals: copper, chrome, nickel, tin, and tungsten. The loser would pay the difference in the 1990 price. What happened?
In 1953, who walked into the Eagle Pub in Cambridge and announced, "We have discovered the secret of life!"?
Fred Waring, "the man who taught America how to sing" as the leader of a big-band called the Pennsylvanians, also invented a modern appliance. Which one?
In a 1999 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet"?
Named by Wendy Northcutt for a famed British biologist, what award goes to people who have improved the gene pool by "removing themselves from it in a spectacularly stupid manner"?
Thomas Newcomen called his invention a "fire engine." Today, we call it something else. What?
Maffeo Barberini was personally offended when Galileo put his ideas in the mouth of the fool Simplico in the book "Dialogue on Great World Systems." Unfortunately for Galileo, what position had his old friend since assumed?
Dean Kamen, who declared his home island "the Kingdom of North Dumpling," also introduced what flop technology in 2001?
Who combined nitroglycerin and gunpowder to create Swedish Blasting Oil?
As president of the Royal Society, what diarist's appears in the imprimatur on the title page of Newton's Principia Mathematica, which the Society published in 1687?
Although known as the father of microbiology and immunology, what scientist got his start in crystallography?
What gem did Ted Maiman use to invent the first laser?
What was Swiss mountaineer inventor George De Mestral inspired to create, after clearing the cockleburrs that stuck on his pants and his dog's coat?
In the 1760s, John Joseph Merlin demonstrated this invention of his while playing the violin at a masquerade ball. Unfortunately, he crashed into an expensive mirror, destroying it and nearly himself. What had he invented?
John Joseph Merlin opened Merlin's Mechanical Museum in the 1700s, where he displayed his efforts to build robots and a perpetual motion machine that ran on atmospheric-pressure changes. Where was it?
Using a design by Leonardo da Vinci, Andre-Jacques Garnerin became the first modern parachutist when he leaped from a balloon into Monceau Park in Paris. When?
In 1817 a German inventor named Drais de Sauerbrunn built the first bicycle, which he rather immodestly called the Draisienne. But it was a Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, added something to that bike that it was missing. What?
The US Patent Office denied Charles Hall a patent on what invention, because something similar had appeared in two Robert Heinlein novels, "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Double Star"?
JJ Thomson discovered what particle, which he likened to the plums in a plum pudding?
Napoleon III supported chemist Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, who found a new way to extract this metal. Completely smitten with it, he even had a table setting made from it. What is it?
Albert Einstein and his student Leo Szilard each revolutionized science, but in 1930 they also got a US patent for what kind of invention, which they sold to Electrolux?
Major General George Squier was the first passenger in an airplane on September 12, 1908 and bought the first planes in what is now the US Air Force. But in 1922, he invented something that we've cursed him for ever since. What?
Discussed by Vannevar Bush in the 1945 The Atlantic Monthly article "As We May Think," the Memex concept never flew, but did inspire what high-tech idea?
Known for his incompleteness theorem, what clinically paranoid mathematician starved to death in 1978 after his wife died because he trusted nobody else to prepare his food?
Named for Friedrich Mohs and determined with a sclerometer, what does the Mohs scale measure?
What metal did Georg Brandt in the 1730s while trying to prove that bismuth is not the only element that can be used to color glass blue?