Q1.
Creativity is 'thinking new things'; innovation is 'doing new things' and an invention is 'bringing ideas or objects together in a novel way to create something that did not exist before'. Human beings are naturally very curious and creative, and this has led to many scientific and technological inventions. Some of them are mentioned below (Sushruta; Dr. Janaki Ammal; Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany). You may look for the names of more such Indian inventors and their inventions.
Answer
Method. Work in pairs. For each name find four things only — when the person lived, the field, the one invention or discovery they are remembered for, and how it changed everyday life. Use your school library, the NCERT Science book, or the Vigyan Prasar and CSIR websites. Put the class's findings into one big chart on the notice board, arranged by field.
The four inventors named in your book, in one line each:
| Name | Field | Remembered for |
|---|---|---|
| Sushruta (6th century BCE) | Medicine and surgery | The Sushruta Samhita; surgical instruments and the technique of rhinoplasty (reconstructing a nose) — he is called the father of surgery. |
| Dr. Janaki Ammal (Padma Shri) | Botany, cytogenetics | Work on chromosomes of sugarcane and brinjal that produced sweeter Indian sugarcane varieties; the Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants. |
| Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Bharat Ratna) | Aerospace | Directed the SLV-III project under which ISRO put the satellite Rohini into near-earth orbit in 1980; later led India's missile programme. |
| Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany (Padma Vibhushan) | Optics | Father of fibre optics — showed that light can be carried along a bent glass fibre, which is how today's internet cables and endoscopes work. |
Sample answer — more Indian inventors and discoverers you can add:
- Aryabhata (5th century CE) — place-value system with zero; explained eclipses and the rotation of the Earth.
- Baudhayana (c. 800 BCE) — stated the right-angled-triangle rule in the Sulba Sutras, centuries before it reached Greece.
- Charaka — the Charaka Samhita, the foundation text of Ayurveda.
- Sir M. Visvesvaraya — automatic sluice gates and the block irrigation system; Krishna Raja Sagara dam.
- Sir J.C. Bose — the crescograph, to measure the growth of plants; pioneering work on radio waves.
- Sir C.V. Raman — the Raman Effect (Nobel Prize, 1930), which explains why the sea looks blue.
- Dr. Homi J. Bhabha — founder of India's atomic energy programme.
- Dr. Verghese Kurien — Operation Flood and Amul; milk powder made from buffalo milk, an Indian first.
- Dr. Tessy Thomas — 'Missile Woman of India', project director of Agni-IV and Agni-V.
- Shakuntala Devi — 'human computer', famous for mental calculation and for making arithmetic popular.
Try This: Ask each pair to end with one sentence beginning 'The invention I would most like to make is…'. That is where Anand of the story would have begun.