Parents can help support their kids to develop science inventions as an outlet for their creativity. Living with curious children can be challenging, but putting an old clock, appliance or stereo in their hands and allowing them to experiment in taking it apart can encourage them to come up with inventions using the parts. Kids who always seem to be inventing new ideas on their own could end up creating designs which have commercial value.
For example, Kathryn Gregory was only 10 years old when she invented Wristies in 1994. She got the idea for the novel wristbands after playing out in the snow and wondering how to keep her wrists protected from the cold in a better way. Kathryn became an entrepreneur after she patented the idea and started her own company.
Some science inventions were discovered by accident, such as the sweetener saccharin. This famous sweetener was accidentally invented by a chemist who didn’t wash his hands after coming home from the office in 1879. He had coal tar on his hands, and noticed that when it rubbed off on his dinner rolls they tasted sweeter.
He went back to his lab the next day and began testing to isolate the ingredient in the coal tar which became the base ingredient in saccharin. Another accidental discovery that became famous is Coke, which was originally created by a pharmacist in Atlanta who was attempting to find a better cure for headaches. John Pemberton combined a number of ingredients into a recipe which to this day remains a closely guarded secret.
Of course, most science inventions are created through a series of steps that help the inventor organize their ideas to take the invention from a concept to a valuable, marketable asset. However, the success rate of being able to convert inventions into profitable products is not very high. This is not always because new inventions are not good ideas, but rather because many inventors lack the knowledge to convert their good idea into a product or how to market that product successfully.
As an inventor, it’s wise to educate yourself on the process. The good news for inventors is that there is always a market for good ideas, and there is a lot of room for improvement of existing products and services on the market today.
