Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the 20th Century
Transistor: Transistor is a semiconductor device that is used to amplify or switch electronic signals. It is an important component of many electronic devices such as telephones and computers. In 1925, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld, an Austrian-Hungarian physicist filed a patent for the principle of field-effect transistor. Dr. Oskar Heil, a German physicist patented another field-effect transistor in 1947. William Shockley contributed to a deeper knowledge about the working of a transistor, which is regarded as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.
Television: Today, one will hardly find a home without a television set. Watching TV is a favorite leisure activity for most of us. But not many know about the discovery of television. During its early stages of development, a television included the technologies, which were used to capture, transmit and display images. Leon Theremin, an inventor from Russia developed a drum-based television system. Later that year, moving images were transmitted for the first time ever from Washington DC to New York City. By the end of 1930, televisions were available in markets across the globe.
World Wide Web: The World Wide Web, commonly abbreviated as WWW is defined as a system of hypertext documents that are accessed over the Internet. Tim Berners-Lee, an English scientist is credited with the invention of the World Wide Web. Its development began in 1990 and it was made available to the public in April 1993. Thanks to the WWW, we can access the Internet through easy means.
Xerography: It is a technique of photocopying documents and visual images. Charles Floyd Carlson, an American physicist and inventor developed this technique in 1938. The technique was patented in 1942. Today, it is used in laser and LED printers as well as photocopying machines worldwide. It is interesting to know how the name ‘xerography’ was born. It is derived from Greek words, ‘xerox’ meaning ‘dry’ and ‘graphos’ meaning ‘writing’.
DNA Profiling: The technique that is used in the identification of individuals on the basis of their DNA profiles, is known as DNA profiling. Forensic scientists use this technique commonly. Sir Alec Jeffreys, a British geneticist working at the University of Leicester in England reported the DNA profiling technique for the first time in 1985.
Microprocessor: A silicon chip that contains the central processing unit of a computer is referred to as a microprocessor. It is the central controlling unit of most of the digital devices as also computers and workstations. Microprocessors were introduced in the 1970s. Following their introduction, there has been a continuous growth in their capacities and speeds. Today, they are a part of a wide variety of electronic devices, ranging from embedded systems right up to supercomputers.
CD: Everyone knows what a CD is. Yes, it refers to an optical disc format that is used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store digital audio, but came to be used as a standard data storage media. It is capable of storing about 700 MB data. CDs hit the market in October 1982. The CD-ROM was introduced in 1985 and the CD-Recordable format came up in 1990.
Penicillin: The discovery of penicillin is attributed to Sir Alexander Fleming, a biologist and pharmacologist from Scotland. His research on antibacterial agents resulted in the discovery of an antibiotic substance called penicillin, which was derived from the fungus Penicillium notatum. The year 1928 witnessed the brilliant discovery of this antibiotic. This achievement of Alexander Fleming earned him the Noble Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
Flip Flop: An electronic circuit that has two stable states is referred to as a flip-flop. British physicists, William Eccles and F.W Jordan invented the flip-flop in 1918. Initially it consisted of two radio tubes. Today’s flip-flops consist of two control signals and a clock signal and require power and ground connections. They are used to store data and can be used to build finite state machines.
Computer Mouse: A computer mouse is a pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion in relation to a computer screen. It is an integral part of a computer system. Do you know when was it invented? Well, it was invented in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart, an American inventor working at the Stanford Research Institute. The invention of the computer mouse was taken as a very small discovery that was a part of a much larger project and Engelbart received no royalties for his invention. He continued with research on pointing devices and conceptualized many more. He is surely to be thanked for his brilliant discovery of this most popular pointing device, a computer mouse.
Transistor: Transistor is a semiconductor device that is used to amplify or switch electronic signals. It is an important component of many electronic devices such as telephones and computers. In 1925, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld, an Austrian-Hungarian physicist filed a patent for the principle of field-effect transistor. Dr. Oskar Heil, a German physicist patented another field-effect transistor in 1947. William Shockley contributed to a deeper knowledge about the working of a transistor, which is regarded as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.
Television: Today, one will hardly find a home without a television set. Watching TV is a favorite leisure activity for most of us. But not many know about the discovery of television. During its early stages of development, a television included the technologies, which were used to capture, transmit and display images. Leon Theremin, an inventor from Russia developed a drum-based television system. Later that year, moving images were transmitted for the first time ever from Washington DC to New York City. By the end of 1930, televisions were available in markets across the globe.
World Wide Web: The World Wide Web, commonly abbreviated as WWW is defined as a system of hypertext documents that are accessed over the Internet. Tim Berners-Lee, an English scientist is credited with the invention of the World Wide Web. Its development began in 1990 and it was made available to the public in April 1993. Thanks to the WWW, we can access the Internet through easy means.
Xerography: It is a technique of photocopying documents and visual images. Charles Floyd Carlson, an American physicist and inventor developed this technique in 1938. The technique was patented in 1942. Today, it is used in laser and LED printers as well as photocopying machines worldwide. It is interesting to know how the name ‘xerography’ was born. It is derived from Greek words, ‘xerox’ meaning ‘dry’ and ‘graphos’ meaning ‘writing’.
DNA Profiling: The technique that is used in the identification of individuals on the basis of their DNA profiles, is known as DNA profiling. Forensic scientists use this technique commonly. Sir Alec Jeffreys, a British geneticist working at the University of Leicester in England reported the DNA profiling technique for the first time in 1985.
Microprocessor: A silicon chip that contains the central processing unit of a computer is referred to as a microprocessor. It is the central controlling unit of most of the digital devices as also computers and workstations. Microprocessors were introduced in the 1970s. Following their introduction, there has been a continuous growth in their capacities and speeds. Today, they are a part of a wide variety of electronic devices, ranging from embedded systems right up to supercomputers.
CD: Everyone knows what a CD is. Yes, it refers to an optical disc format that is used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store digital audio, but came to be used as a standard data storage media. It is capable of storing about 700 MB data. CDs hit the market in October 1982. The CD-ROM was introduced in 1985 and the CD-Recordable format came up in 1990.
Penicillin: The discovery of penicillin is attributed to Sir Alexander Fleming, a biologist and pharmacologist from Scotland. His research on antibacterial agents resulted in the discovery of an antibiotic substance called penicillin, which was derived from the fungus Penicillium notatum. The year 1928 witnessed the brilliant discovery of this antibiotic. This achievement of Alexander Fleming earned him the Noble Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
Flip Flop: An electronic circuit that has two stable states is referred to as a flip-flop. British physicists, William Eccles and F.W Jordan invented the flip-flop in 1918. Initially it consisted of two radio tubes. Today’s flip-flops consist of two control signals and a clock signal and require power and ground connections. They are used to store data and can be used to build finite state machines.
Computer Mouse: A computer mouse is a pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion in relation to a computer screen. It is an integral part of a computer system. Do you know when was it invented? Well, it was invented in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart, an American inventor working at the Stanford Research Institute. The invention of the computer mouse was taken as a very small discovery that was a part of a much larger project and Engelbart received no royalties for his invention. He continued with research on pointing devices and conceptualized many more. He is surely to be thanked for his brilliant discovery of this most popular pointing device, a computer mouse.
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