An invention is a new form, composition of matter, device, or process. Some inventions are based on pre-existing forms, compositions, processes or ideas. Other inventions are radical breakthroughs which may extend the boundaries of human knowledge or experience.

Invention that gets out into the world is innovation, and as such it may be a major breakthrough, it may have a minor or incremental impact or its effect can be in between these two extremes.

There is also a “cultural invention” which is an innovative set of useful behaviors adopted by people who then pass them on.

An invention that is novel and not obvious to those who are skilled in the same field may be able to obtain the legal protection of a patent.

The process of invention

Invention is a highly creative process.

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prize 1937

An open curious mind enables one to see beyond what is known. Inventors think outside of the box. "Hell, there are no rules here — we're trying to accomplish something new." Thomas A. Edison Seeing a new possibility, a new connection or relationship can spark invention. Inventive thinking frequently involves combining elements from different realms that would not normally be put together. Inventors skip over the boundaries between distinctly separate territories or fields. Ways of thinking, materials, processes or tools from one realm are used as nobody had ever imagined in a different realm. This is how Cubism, one of the most revolutionary innovations in art was invented. Taking ideas from primitive culture, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque reinvented art in the civilized world.

To invent is to see anew. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old questions from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance.” “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein Inventors often envision a new idea, seeing it in their mind. New ideas can come when the conscious mind turns away from the subject or problem, when the focus is on something else, while relaxing or sleeping. A novel idea may come in a flash - Eureka! For example, after years of working to figure out the general theory of relativity, the solution came to Einstein suddenly in a dream “like a giant die making an indelible impress, a huge map of the universe outlined itself in one clear vision.”

Inventing also takes insight. It may begin with questions, doubt or a hunch. It may begin by recognizing that something unusual or accidental may be useful or that it opens a new avenue for exploration. For example, the odd metallic color of plastic made by accidentally adding a thousand times too much catalyst led scientists to explore its metal-like properties, inventing electrically conductive plastic and light emitting plastic - invention that won the Nobel Prize in 2000 and is innovating lighting, display screens, wallpaper and much more (see conductive polymer, and organic light-emitting diode or PLED).