What impresses you more? A discovery or an invention?

Question

...and do you consider the "discovery" of a cure for cancer to really be an invention?

I think Inventions are more impressive. They require more brains than discoveries which for most of human history were just sitting there waiting for the first person to find them. Or to look at it another way Discoveries are inevitable but inventions aren't

I agree they are both important but in modern times discoveries are mostly DEPENDENT on new inventions. They're are lots of invention that wouldn't require new discoveries but few discoveries that don't require new inventions. Galileo inventied his telescope and discovered Juptiers 4 moons but that discovery sisnb;t lead to new inventions directly. And those moons would have been discovered eventually.

Answer 1

Something as complex as a cure for cancer will require many inventions before the final discovery. (If there is a "final" discovery!) Isaac Newton said it nicely: "If it seems I see far, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants."

That said, a really cool invention can completely change our lives. Imagine if there was no telephone or no radio... what would life be like then? Perhaps the greatest invention so far was the transistor, which begat the integrated circuits that form the infrastructure of modern society. Without integrated circuits, we wouldn't be having this conversation... there would be no Internet, no home computers, and just about everything we do would be more expensive and less efficient. And bigger -- much, much bigger.

So I lean slightly toward a great invention being more impressive than a great discovery. Both are wonderful things, however.

Thanks for the thoughtful question!

Answer 2

They are both amazing. Remember a discovery happens not because someone just found it. They had to come up with the right questions to ask. Most discoveries are right in front of our eyes, we just don't see them until the right person comes along to show us.

Without discoveries like silicon or the properties of waves, transistors could not have existed. Without inventions like the wheel or the telescope we couldn't have discovered many things. Invention and discovery go hand in hand. You couldn't have one without the other.

Answer 3

An invention because a discovery is just telling you about something. An invention will help you life in some way.
Like cell phones they help us talk to people so that we dont have to go to their house. And that is an invention

Answer 4

Discovery. I think a cure for cancer both. Now they have found they can take white cells and modify them and put them back in the body to attack cancer cells.

Answer 5

they are interdependent. would america have been discovered if no one had invented the ship? will the cure for cancer be discovered if the tools had never been invented?

total thumbs up on this excellent question i discovered (with the laptop someone invented)!

Answer 6

discovery,

favorite discovery:mt everest

favorite invention:p.c.

discovery-when you find something

invention-when you make something

Answer 7

a discovery
what you make dies,but what you learn lives forever

Answer 8

they actually do go hand in hand. they are both important and useful.

Answer 9

i feel they both go hand in hand

Answer 10

THOR likes big hammers