Anyone interested in science knows that it takes well-designed experiments to produce results. Is that really true? You might be surprised, as I was, to learn that 30 to 50 percent of scientific discoveries happen by accident.
But there is something unusual about these serendipitous findings. They may have started out as an accident, but they occurred because scientists and researchers noticed unusual or unexpected results.
Here are 12 of the most fascinating serendipitous discoveries that have changed our world.
1. 1827 Matches
British chemist John Walker liked to experiment with different chemicals in the laboratory. He would mix different batches and watch how they reacted. His latest blend is a mixture of antimony sulfide and potassium chlorate .
It's a particularly sticky mixture that coats the end of his stir stick. When he tried to scrape it off, it suddenly burst into flames, shocking the chemist. He had just invented the world's first match. They were called "John Walker's Friction Lamps."
2. 1878 - Saccharin
Russian chemist Konstantin Fagerberg worked at Baltimore the famous Johns Hopkins University. His task is to analyze the chemical properties of coal tar .
One day, he forgot to wash his hands and was eating rolls for lunch when he suddenly discovered that the rolls tasted "indescribably sweet." He wiped his mouth with a napkin to get rid of the sweetness in his mouth, but the napkin was sweeter than the bread. He took a sip of the syrupy water. Fortunately, he made the connection between coal tar and sweetness that he had been researching.
He stumbled upon saccharin. Saccharin is 300-400 times sweeter than white sugar.
3. Coca-Cola in 1886
John Pemberton
American biochemist John Pemberton was nearly fatally wounded in the American Civil War. This left him in constant pain and addicted to morphine. For years he had been experimenting, trying to invent an alternative painkiller to break his addiction.
He invented a syrup made from coca leaves and kola nuts. By accident, his lab assistant mixed syrup with carbonated water, and the first version of Coca-Cola was born. It didn't cure headaches, and Pemberton died before seeing the impact his simple syrup would have on the soft drink industry.
4. 1895 - x rays
William Conrad: His Wife's Hands
In 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen was experimenting with a cathode ray tube. When the room was dark, he noticed a strange phosphorescence appearing on a nearby screen. He didn't want this glow to interfere with his experiments, so he tried blocking the light from the tube, but it didn't work.
Then, incredibly, as he ran his hand through the tube, he saw bones appear on the screen. Roentgen discovered modern x-rays.
5. 1896 - Radioactivity
Henri Becquerel Photography Plate
Sometimes all it takes is a bit of bad weather to create ideal conditions for unexpected discoveries. French scientist Henri Becquerel heard about Roentgen's recent discovery of X-rays. Becquerel wanted to study phosphorescence further. He believed that uranium crystals could absorb sunlight and create images.
He conducted experiments and showed that these crystals could produce outlines on the plate regardless of whether the sun was shining on it. He took this as evidence that crystals absorb the sun to create images. Then the weather turned cloudy and he shut the plate and crystal in a dark drawer. When he came back, the image on the plate was crystal clear.
Becquerel accidentally discovered that uranium is radioactive.
6. 1903 - Shatterproof glass
Car windshield
French scientist Edouard Benedict spent the whole day experimenting with nitrocellulose compounds. Maybe he was tired and ready to call it a day.For whatever reason, he accidentally dropped the flask containing the mixture.
To his surprise, the glass shattered, but not into small pieces. Instead, it maintains its original shape. Benedict believes that this mixture coated the inside of the flask and somehow helped prevent the glass from breaking. He had just invented shatterproof glass.
7. 1928 - Penicillin
Penicillin and Bacteria
Perhaps the most famous accidental discovery was penicillin. In 1928, while on vacation, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming left a petri dish open on his workbench for a week. When he returned, he noticed a blue-green mold had grown. Mold eats away at the bacteria on the dishes.
If Fleming had thrown away the plate, we might not have the powerful antibiotic penicillin, the precursor to modern medicine.
8. Velcro 1941
Burdock - Provided by CC-BY-SA-3.0
Don't you think it's annoying those burrs that stick to your clothes when you're out walking? Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral found them fascinating. After a hike, he was covered in these horrible things. The fact that they would stick to anything gave him an idea.
Maybe if he could see how they worked, they could be used as a kind of clothing button. He studied the burrs carefully and found that the burrs had hooks that could attach to any loop. All he had to do was copy the hook and loop, and Velcro was invented.
9. In 1945, American engineer Percy Spencer worked for a radar company. Radar works by radiating a beam of electromagnetic energy from an antenna into space. It scans an area and sends out a ping if it hits an object.
Spencer is working on a magnetron that can emit high wave energy. As he walked past the test tubes, he noticed that a piece of chocolate in his pocket had mysteriously melted. This piqued his curiosity.
He placed the unpopped corn next to the pipe, and the pipe began to pop. This was the beginning of microwave technology, although the first microwave oven was only 5 feet tall. It would still be a few years until the compact version as we know it came out.
10. 1951 - Super Glue
For American chemist Harry Wesley Coover, Jr., the day started out like any other. But when a new substance he'd been working on destroyed an expensive lens, he thought he'd lost his job.
This substance is considered heat-resistant and can protect jets sights . Instead, when he used the new acrylic , it stuck the lenses together and they couldn't be separated. Even though they were all ruined, , Coover, and saw the potential of this substance. It took seven years for the first generation of super glue to be brought to market.
11. 1956: Pacemaker
American engineer and inventor Wilson Greatbatch loved tinkering with electronics. With the help of his wife Eleanor, he became particularly interested in inventing a new machine for recording human heartbeats. This will help diagnose people with fast or irregular heartbeats.
However, during the process of building the machine, he accidentally inserted the wrong parts. Instead of recording, the machine sent out its own electrical impulses. Greatbatch realized the significance of what had just happened. He made a pacemaker.
12. 1996: viagra
During clinical trials of a new heart drug, men around the world have a nurse on duty to thank. She wasn't the type to be embarrassed by her bodily functions.
In the early 1990s, a drug to treat cardiovascular disease was in clinical trials. This medicine is used to dilate the blood vessels in the heart. Everything was fine, no side effects, but the nurse noticed something strange.
Many men would lie on their stomachs when she entered the room to observe. This became so common that she pressed them further.
It turns out the drug does have an interesting side effect - it dilates the blood vessels in a man's penis. These men are experiencing erections. This serendipitous discovery led to the isolation of the active ingredients and gave new life to many people.
Isn’t it surprising that some of the most important scientific discoveries happen by accident? Maybe we should all pay a little more attention when things don’t go exactly as planned.
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