List of discoveries influenced by chance circumstances

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Below are discoveries in science that involve chance circumstances in a particularly salient way. This page should not list all chance involved in all discoveries (i.e. it should focus on discoveries reported for their notable circumstances).

Contents

Overview

Royston Roberts says that various discoveries required a degree of genius, but also some lucky element for that genius to act on. [1] Richard Gaughan writes that accidental discoveries result from the convergence of preparation, opportunity, and desire. [2]

Major everyday discoveries that were helped by luck in some way include products like vulcanized rubber, teflon, nylon, penicillin, cyanoacrylate (Super Glue), the implantable pacemaker [ citation needed ], the microwave oven, Scotchgard, Saran wrap, Silly Putty, Slinky, safety glass, [3] propeller, snowmaking [ citation needed ], stainless steel, Perkin's mauve, and popsicles. Most artificial sweeteners have been discovered when accidentally tasted, including aspartame and saccharin. [3]

Ideas include the theory of the Big Bang, tissue culture, radio astronomy, and the discovery of DNA. [2]

Such archeological discoveries as the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ruins of Pompeii also emerged partly out of serendipity. [1]

Many relevant and well known scientific theories were developed by chance at some degree along history. According to a legend, Archimedes realized his principle on hydrostatics when he entered in a bath full of water, which overflows (he then shouted out his famous "Eureka!"). And the unexpected, negative results of the Michelson–Morley experiment in their search of the luminiferous aether ultimately led to the special theory of relativity by Albert Einstein.

The optical illusion called the "flashed face distortion effect" suggests a new area of research in the neurology of face perception.

Detailed examples

Newton and gravity

Newton's reflections that led him to his theories about gravity started when he saw an apple fall from a tree Newton's apple tree in the Botanical Gardens, the University of Tokyo.jpg
Newton's reflections that led him to his theories about gravity started when he saw an apple fall from a tree

In his book, Roberts recounts Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity (using Newton's own descriptions and notes). Newton was sitting in his yard when he noticed an apple fall from a tree. The apple fell straight down, perpendicular to the ground, and Newton found himself wondering why the apple never falls upward or off to a side. Newton soon realized that it was a property of all matter to have an attractive force, including the apple, and even the moon – which moves as one would expect if it was passing the earth but nevertheless being attracted. It was another 20 years before Newton published his detailed theory of gravity, but he later visited the tree that helped him provoke the idea. [1] Gaughan elaborates that Newton only had the opportunity to reflect on his orchard because of other chance circumstances: Newton was home because his university was shut down due to an outbreak of plague. [2]

Nobel and blasting gelatin

According to Roberts, the common story that Alfred Nobel's discovery of dynamite was an accident may not be true. On the other hand, Roberts says, Nobel did make a discovery with the help of luck soon after that. Nobel cut his finger on a piece of glass one day at work and subsequently applied collodion in order to form a protective layer over the wound (similar in principle to liquid bandage). Nobel was kept up at night by the pain in his finger, so he started to think about a problem he was having back at work: Nobel was trying to create a powerful explosive using nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine, but the two would not combine. Roberts reports that Nobel then realized that collodion (which he was using to dress his wound) could allow the two substances to combine, which led to the invention of blasting gelatin (as powerful as dynamite but much safer to handle). [1]

Pasteur

Pasteur was lucky to be using a particular kind of acid salt, but also lucky that he left his solution on a window sill overnight. Otherwise there would have been no chemical reaction, and his genius would have had nothing to notice and interpret. 2008-07-06 Bottle of Goo Gone solvent.jpg
Pasteur was lucky to be using a particular kind of acid salt, but also lucky that he left his solution on a window sill overnight. Otherwise there would have been no chemical reaction, and his genius would have had nothing to notice and interpret.

The French scientist Louis Pasteur is responsible for various discoveries, some of which involved serendipity in some way. This seems to be the case with both his discovery that chemically identical molecules can have chirality (the way a right handed baseball glove will not work with the left hand), as well as his discovery of the chicken cholera vaccine.

Chirality

Roberts writes "Pasteur was puzzled: the salts of tartaric acid and racemic acid were said to be identical in chemical composition and crystalline shape, but they had different effects on polarized light." [1] Pasteur later prepared a solution of only racemic acid and found that it itself contained salt crystals with chirality and which affected light differently. This was somewhat lucky because the type of salt crystals that Pasteur was studying (sodium ammonium salt of racemic acid) is one of few salts that would be visibly different in Pasteur's time. Moreover, the salts only differentiate if the solution reaches a temperature below 26 °C (79 °F); Pasteur did not know about this temperature requirement, but he did happen to store the solution on a window sill over night and the cold Paris air activated it. [1]

Chicken cholera vaccine

Pasteur and his assistants had succeeded in isolating a microbe from chickens sick or dead from cholera. Chickens injected with the isolated microbe invariably died — a key element in Pasteur's reasoning that the microbe was responsible for the disease, rather than a result of the disease, as many thought. Pasteur was searching for a method of preventing the disease, but no matter what he did to the "broth" of microbes or to the chickens, all injected chickens died. Gaughan writes "Finally Pasteur had had enough, he needed a vacation. He told [his assistant] to take care of injecting more chickens with the next batch of bacteria." [2] His assistant neglected the task, electing to go on vacation as well. When the men returned and injected chickens with the batch of bacteria that had sat around for a few weeks, none died, indicating to Pasteur that the batch of bacteria had been ruined. But when those same chickens were injected with a new batch of bacteria, none of them died, while chickens that hadn't previously been injected with the "spoiled" batch all died. Pasteur reasoned that the "attenuated" microbes in the spoiled batch "'used up' something within the body; something that wasn't there for the fully functional bacteria to eat." [2] His explanation was wrong, but his chance creation of attenuated bacteria resulted in the first intentionally created vaccine. [2]

Related Research Articles

Robert Koch 19/20th-century German physician and bacteriologist

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax, he is regarded as one of the main founders of modern bacteriology. As such he is popularly nicknamed the father of microbiology, and as the father of medical bacteriology. His discovery of the anthrax bacterium in 1876 is considered as the birth of modern bacteriology. His discoveries directly provided proofs for the germ theory of diseases, and the scientific basis of public health.

Louis Pasteur French chemist and microbiologist

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. His research in chemistry led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and preventions of diseases, which laid down the foundations of hygiene, public health and much of modern medicine. His works are credited to saving millions of lives through the developments of vaccines for rabies and anthrax. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern bacteriology and has been honoured as the "father of bacteriology" and as the "father of microbiology".

Microorganism Microscopic living organism

A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells.

Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. Serendipity is also seen as a potential design principle for online activities that would present a wide array of information and viewpoints, rather than just re-enforcing a user's opinion.

Tartaric acid C4-dihydroxy-dicarboxylic acid with different stereoisomers

Tartaric acid is a white, crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably in grapes, but also in bananas, tamarinds, and citrus. Its salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of tartar, develops naturally in the process of fermentation. It is commonly mixed with sodium bicarbonate and is sold as baking powder used as a leavening agent in food preparation. The acid itself is added to foods as an antioxidant E334 and to impart its distinctive sour taste. Naturally occurring tartaric acid is a useful raw material in organic chemical synthesis. Tartaric acid is an alpha-hydroxy-carboxylic acid, is diprotic and aldaric in acid characteristics, and is a dihydroxyl derivative of succinic acid.

Élie Metchnikoff 19th and 20th-century Russian and French immunologist, embryologist, biologist, and Nobel laureat

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov was a Russian zoologist of Romanian nobility ancestry and Ukrainian Jewish origin best known for his pioneering research in immunology. He and Paul Ehrlich were jointly awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of their work on immunity". He was born, lived and worked for many years on the territory of the Russian Empire. Given this complex heritage, four different nations and peoples justifiably lay claim to Mechnikov.

Enantiomer Stereoisomers which are non-superposable mirror images of each other

In chemistry, an enantiomer is one of two stereoisomers that are mirror images of each other that are non-superposable, much as one's left and right hands are mirror images of each other that cannot appear identical simply by reorientation. A single chiral atom or similar structural feature in a compound causes that compound to have two possible structures which are non-superposable, each a mirror image of the other. Each member of the pair is termed an enantiomorph ; the structural property is termed enantiomerism. The presence of multiple chiral features in a given compound increases the number of geometric forms possible, though there may still be some perfect-mirror-image pairs.

Malic acid Dicarboxylic acid responsible for apple acidity

Malic acid is an organic compound with the molecular formula C4H6O5. It is a dicarboxylic acid that is made by all living organisms, contributes to the sour taste of fruits, and is used as a food additive. Malic acid has two stereoisomeric forms, though only the L-isomer exists naturally. The salts and esters of malic acid are known as malates. The malate anion is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle.

Félix dHérelle French microbiologist

Félix d'Hérelle was a French microbiologist. He was co-discoverer of bacteriophages and experimented with the possibility of phage therapy. D'Herelle has also been credited for his contributions to the larger concept of applied microbiology.

In chemistry, racemization is a conversion, by heat or by chemical reaction, of an optically active compound into a racemic form. Half of the optically active substance becomes its mirror image (enantiomer) referred as racemic mixtures. If the racemization results in a mixture where the D and L enantiomers are present in equal quantities, the resulting sample is described as a racemic mixture or a racemate. Racemization can proceed through a number of different mechanisms, and it has particular significance in pharmacology as different enantiomers may have different pharmaceutical effects.

Pasteur Institute French disease research organization

The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. The institute was founded on June 4, 1887, and inaugurated on November 14, 1888.

Homochirality is a uniformity of chirality, or handedness. Objects are chiral when they cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, the left and right hands of a human are approximately mirror images of each other but are not their own mirror images, so they are chiral. In biology, 19 of the 20 natural amino acids are homochiral, being L-chiral (left-handed), while sugars are D-chiral (right-handed). Homochirality can also refer to enantiopure substances in which all the constituents are the same enantiomer, but some sources discourage this use of the term.

History of penicillin

The history of penicillin follows a number of observations and discoveries of apparent evidence of antibiotic activity of the mould Penicillium that led to the development of penicillins that became the most widely used antibiotics. Following the identification of Penicillium rubens as the source of the compound in 1928 and with the production of pure compound in 1942, penicillin became the first naturally derived antibiotic. There are anecdotes about ancient societies using moulds to treat infections, and in the following centuries many people observed the inhibition of bacterial growth by various moulds. However, it is unknown if the species involved were Penicillium species or if the antimicrobial substances produced were penicillin.

The following are notable events in the Timeline of immunology:

Fermentation Metabolic process

Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food production, it may more broadly refer to any process in which the activity of microorganisms brings about a desirable change to a foodstuff or beverage. The science of fermentation is known as zymology.

Chiral resolution, or enantiomeric resolution, is a process in stereochemistry for the separation of racemic compounds into their enantiomers. It is an important tool in the production of optically active compounds, including drugs. Another term with the same meaning is optical resolution.

Microbiology Study of microscopic organisms

Microbiology is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular, multicellular, or acellular. Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, protistology, mycology, immunology and parasitology.

The French Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) and German Robert Koch (1843–1910) are the two greatest figures in medical microbiology and in establishing acceptance of the germ theory of disease. In 1882, fueled by national rivalry and a language barrier, the tension between Pasteur and the younger Koch erupted into an acute conflict.

Role of chance in scientific discoveries

The role of chance, or "luck", in science comprises all ways in which unexpected discoveries are made.

<i>Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science</i> Science book by Royston M. Roberts

Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science is a 1989 popular science book by the chemist Royston M. Roberts. It received positive and mixed reviews; critics found it informative and entertaining, though some indicated that it contained errors.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Roberts, Royston M. (1989). Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gaughan, Richard (2010). Accidental Genius: The World's Greatest By-Chance Discoveries . Metro Books. ISBN   978-1-4351-2557-5.
  3. 1 2 Andrew Boyd. "Engines of Our Ingenuity, Episode 2463: Serendipity" . Retrieved 2012-12-25.
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