The history of the development of science are examples of accidental discoveries. Non-accidental discoveries
It is interesting how far progress could have gone if Aristarchus of Samos in the ill century. BC e. was heard by contemporaries and people learned almost 2 millennia earlier that the Earth, along with other planets, revolves around the Sun?
We can say that modern world is just the result of a consistent chain of discoveries and inventions made by man over the millennia. When it comes to discoveries, the imagination immediately draws a naked Archimedes jumping out of the bathtub or an apple that fell from a branch onto Newton's head. Periodic table of elements, dreamed of
Mendeleev, or America, accidentally discovered by Columbus - what is it? Luck, surprise, miracle, or is it a regularity, which is based on a persistent desire to expand the horizons of knowledge?
Many discoveries took by surprise not only the researchers who made them, but the entire scientific community. Apparently, that is why the fame of the random was entrenched for them, although in reality they were simply unexpected. Such discoveries include X-rays, electricity, electron, radioactivity, revealed even when the atom was still considered indivisible, and atomic energy.
However, the last of these was not entirely sudden. Many scientists predicted the possibility of using energy obtained through the transformation of matter, and even associated this energy with atomic reactions. So, from a technical point of view, only the moment of the onset of this event remained unforeseen. Any discoveries, including supposedly accidental ones, are the result of previous investigations that prepare a base for them.
“A false step more than once led to the opening of new roads,” the master of aphorisms Leszek Kumor once said, and America, found by Christopher Columbus on his way to India, is a textbook example. But can this be called an accident?
Imagine the situation: Columbus turns to the country's leadership with a dubious proposal requiring huge financial investments. He is completely unexpectedly assigned a squadron (albeit a small one), and he sails into the endless ocean, and there he suddenly discovers a new continent. Something too unprecedented coincidence of circumstances.
Of course, this event should belong to the section not accidental, but erroneous. Indeed, in the era of great geographical discoveries, travelers sailed into the unknown, not knowing in advance what and where they would find. However, their persistent search for new lands made subsequent finds a natural consequence.
There were many mistakes of this kind in that century. For example, the famous French navigator La Pérouse mistakenly decided that Sakhalin is a peninsula. His opinion was confirmed by none other than Kruzenshtern. And only Nevelskoy's expedition corrected this delusion.
With the advent of aircraft and spacecraft, geography stopped giving researchers a reason for accidental and erroneous discoveries. Which, however, cannot be said about other areas of science that are still able to guard their secrets from annoying pundits. A significant part of unexpected discoveries relates to chemistry and related fields (biochemistry, pharmaceuticals), and many of them relate to previously unknown elements or compounds. Accident? Far from it, because these substances already existed in nature and would inevitably have been identified. The only question was when and by whom it could be done.
Consider, for example, one of the common stories of the discovery of iodine. The French chemist Bernard Courtois had a favorite cat. Once he, frightened of something, inadvertently jumped to the floor and dropped the bottles that were near the laboratory table. In one of them, Courtois prepared a suspension of algae ash in ethanol for the experiment, and in the other there was concentrated sulfuric acid. The bottles broke and the liquids mixed. Clouds of blue-violet steam began to rise from the floor, which settled on the surrounding objects in the form of tiny black-violet crystals with a metallic sheen and a pungent odor. It was a new chemical element - iodine ...
Answer honestly: do you always have a bottle of sulfuric acid on hand? I do not have. That is, the accident of this discovery was only in the fact that the original elements were mixed without the participation of a scientist. However, he carefully considered the results of this unintentional experiment and drew the right conclusions. As Bernard Baruch said, "millions of people saw apples fall, but only Newton asked why." And this readiness of the scientist to ask questions, his desire to study the unknown, as well as the habit of keeping sulfuric acid ready, are not at all accidental!
Even if there is an element of chance in the discovery of new substances or lands, one cannot but admit that all of them were made by researchers who purposefully carried out work in their direction. Numerous re-discoveries are proof of their inevitability.
The following facts are most widely known: most of the 500 laws discovered by Robert Hooke were simultaneously identified by other scientists; Lord Kelvin made 32 discoveries, which were also made by 30 other scientists; many aspects of the theory of relativity were developed simultaneously with Albert Einstein by André Poincaré.
Of particular interest are discoveries made almost at the same time by several scientists, often literally hours apart. So, the theory of natural selection was presented on July 1, 1858 in the Linnean Society by two researchers at once - Darwin and Wallace. True, Darwin developed the theory of the evolution of species for 20 years, while Wallace took one week. Alexander Chizhevsky came to the conclusion about the coincidence of social crises with the maximums of solar activity simultaneously with the ethnographer Vasily Anuchin, who described this fact in the book "Social Law".
This is how it was created periodic table elements. Everyone knows that Dmitry Mendeleev saw her in a dream. But not everyone has heard that before him attempts to systematize elements were undertaken by Johann Debereiner, Leopold Gmelin, Max von Pettenkofer, Jean Dumas, Adolph Strecker, William Odling, Alexander de Chancourtois, John Newlands and Julius Lothar Meyer.
Unexpected joy.
BRANDY.
In the Middle Ages, merchant seafarers often evaporated water from transported
wine - so that it does not deteriorate on the road and take up less space. Soon, someone resourceful decided to dispense with the recovery phase of the water extracted during the distillation. He suddenly discovered that the taste of fortified wine is great, and its effect is much stronger. This is how brandy appeared, which is now so popular all over the world.
POTATO CHIPS
Everyone's favorite crispy potato was born as a sign of protest. One of the clients of the chef George Krum constantly complained that the potatoes were cut too thick and not fried properly. When the cook got tired of listening to the complaints, he cut it into slices almost as thick as a sheet of paper and fried in a huge amount of oil. Krum did not even suspect that his "revenge" would be so tasty and henceforth he would only have to cook potatoes for a fastidious client.
X-RAYS
Many scientists were interested in the rays that appear as a result of the impact of electrons on a metal target. In 1895, the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen exposed various objects to this radiation and. changing them, by chance I saw how the projection of the bones of his own hand was reflected on the wall. This is how X-rays were discovered that can "shine through" the human body.
BUNS with raisins
This story refers to legends rather than reliable facts, but nevertheless deserves attention. Once Governor-General Arseny Zakrevsky. having bought a fresh sausage, I saw in it ... a cockroach. The baker Ivan Filippov, summoned to the carpet, grabbed the insect and ate it in front of the astonished audience, saying that the general was mistaken - it was a highlight. Back at the bakery. Filippov ordered to urgently start baking buns with raisins, he did not even suspect that they would be in such demand.
PENICILLIN
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928 studied the struggle of the human body with influenza. Having grown a culture of staphylococci in 3 Petri dishes, he found that the dishes were poorly washed and mold settled in them. Fleming was upset, but, looking more closely, he noticed that staphylococci had died around the mold spots. After some time, he isolated the penicillin molecule, the world's first antibiotic, from the mold.
MICROWAVES
If engineer Percy Gunser did not like chocolate, the whole world would probably still use pots and pans to heat food. Microwave emitters were installed on Allied radars during World War II. Working near one of the radars. Spencer at some point discovered that the emitter had melted a chocolate bar in his pocket. He was a little upset, but at the same time seriously thought, and then created a microwave that is indispensable in every home.
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide initially interested scientists exclusively as an aid in childbirth. However, the Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann decided to test the new drug on himself. The scientist christened April 19, 1943 the Day of the Bicycle, since under the influence of "acid" he made an unforgettable ride on this transport, and from that day he devoted his life to studying the effects of LSD on the psyche and consciousness.
VIAGRA
Who would have thought that the famous Viagra appeared thanks to research on the invention of a remedy for angina. Men all over the world, and women too, can thank the inhabitants of the Welsh city of Merthyr Tydefill. It was here in 1992 that male patients refused to return the experimental tablets after testing ended. Pfizer executives paid due attention to this turn of events - and soon a new drug was introduced.
Sooner or later?
The fact that any discovery has a definite base makes it possible, by analyzing the predecessors, to make an assumption about future achievements. These predicted finds include the planet Pluto, whose existence a quarter of a century before had been proved by calculation by astronomer Percival Lovell. The recent discovery of Uranus satellites was predicted by Soviet astronomers Nikolai Garkavy and Alexei Fridman. Mendeleev predetermined the discovery of eka-aluminum (Ga), ekabor (Sc) and ekasilicon (Ge), as well as analogues of manganese, tellurium, iodine, cesium, barium and tantalum. The existence of inert gases was predicted by William Ramsay. Radio waves were identified by Hertz based on Maxwell's assumption of their existence.
Today, many scientists predict the imminent discovery of one or even several planets. Solar system as well as habitable or habitable planets in other star systems.
However, the history of science knows many cases when scientists simply ignored a certain fact, because it was in deep contradiction with traditional ideas or could not be used in applied research and applied in technology. Such discoveries are called premature, and later, when people's consciousness is ready for new knowledge, they radically change the prevailing worldview and become the basis for a more accurate understanding of reality. Some of the more famous are:
♦ The heliocentric system was proposed at the beginning of the 3rd century. BC e. Aristarchus of Samos, but then forgotten until the discovery of Nicolaus Copernicus.
♦ Back in the 17th century. it was known that the weight of certain substances increases when fired, and the French chemist Leferb suggested that the reason for this was the attachment of some "universal spirit." However, this hypothesis was not developed due to the dominance of the phlogiston theory. The fact that the weight of a number of bodies increased during firing was rediscovered in the second half of the 18th century. and played a huge role in the creation of the oxygen theory of combustion, which destroyed the phlogiston theory.
♦ Gregor Mendel in the 19th century. revealed the laws of inheritance of traits and connected them with the combinatorial theory of hereditary factors, or genes. But only in the early 1950s. Barbara McClintock discovered mobile elements that can move along chromosomes, for which she received the Nobel Prize.
♦ The conjecture about the force of gravity acting between all bodies in the Universe was put forward by Francis Bacon about a century before Isaac Newton.
♦ The famous botanist Robert Brown discovered the random movement of pollen in water, but thought that he was dealing with some living creatures. And only 100 years later, physicist Jean Perrin was able to interpret this as the movement of atoms.
Such a delay in the recognition of some outstanding achievements is a natural phenomenon in the history of science. This is rooted in the social and psychological characteristics of people, most of whom are not ready to quickly and adequately respond to revolutionary changes. After all, “nothing distracts scientists like a premature discovery,” Jean Rostand subtly noted.
THE CREATION OF HUMAN HANDS
Speaking about discoveries, one should not forget about the other side of the coin - inventions. After all, the former only only let the world know about the existence of phenomena or processes, while the latter are hand-made works created exclusively thanks to the efforts and imagination of the person himself. However, here we are faced with the same tendencies.
In 1844, Charles Goodyear discovered a recipe for making a material that does not soften in the heat and does not become brittle in the cold. Before that, he had tried unsuccessfully for many years to improve the quality of rubber until he accidentally heated a mixture of it with sulfur on a kitchen stove. The invention of rubber made the modern automobile possible. Naturally, it cannot be called accidental, because Goodyear has been mixing rubber with various substances for many years. It's just that he was more fortunate this time. This is a typical example of the application of the trial and error method, which one day deservedly rewarded a researcher for many years of efforts.
It would seem that there can be no completely unintentional inventions. But, nevertheless, there is an element of chance here. Although, like discoveries, such inventions are rather not accidental, but erroneous. For example, the chocolate chip cookie came about when innkeeper Ruth Wakefield decided to bake a butter cookie. A woman broke a chocolate bar and mixed the pieces of chocolate with the dough, hoping that the chocolate would melt and give the dough Brown color and a chocolatey flavor. However, her ignorance of the laws of physics let her down, and from the oven she took out biscuits with pieces of chocolate.
Sticky notes are the result of an unsuccessful experiment to improve the durability of the glue. An employee of the ZM research laboratory tried to improve the quality of the adhesive tape (scotch tape). However, he received a not very durable glue that did not absorb into the glued surfaces. Four years later, a colleague, annoyed that the bookmarks in the book fell out, remembered glue that could secure them without damaging the pages of the book. This is how stickers, irreplaceable in any office, were invented. It is clearly seen that all the listed inventions were only a "side effect" of purposefully carried out work.
Along with unexpected inventions, most of which are of an applied nature, there were also those, the appearance of which was eagerly awaited in many countries of the world. And then repeated, and sometimes simultaneous, were born. Few people know that about 30 steamboats were built and used in England and the United States by the time Robert Fulton patented his Claremont.
And here are the most famous and dramatic cases of simultaneous inventions:
♦ Alexander Graham Bell submitted a patent application for the telephone two hours before Elisha Gray, which robbed him of both the fame and the reward for many years of painstaking work on the device.
♦ Radio was invented almost simultaneously by Popov and Marconi.
♦ The telescope was constructed almost simultaneously in Holland at the beginning of the 17th century. Lippersgey, Metzius and Jansen.
At the same time, those who deny the inevitability of inventions note that many of them, although they perform the same functions, do not differ in special similarities. In my opinion, this fact only confirms the principle of lawfulness of inventions, as it proves that scientists did not "copy" from each other, but carried out work completely apart from their colleagues.
RACE WITH FANTASY
in the field of solar energy were simply suppressed by representatives of large oil concerns. Perhaps the age of environmentally friendly energy will come to the planet only after the last drop of black gold is sold.
Despite these negative moments, practice shows that any phenomenon existing in nature will sooner or later be discovered, and an invention, especially if it is based on any discovery or has serious developments in the past, will certainly come true. Thus, there is no doubt that inventive creativity develops in accordance with certain laws. This gives hope that more efficient mechanisms for predicting new inventions can be created in the future. One of the methods of such a forecast is the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), created in the USSR, but developed in the industrially developed countries of the West and East.
Creative natures - science fiction writers - provide food for thought to engineers and inventors. Like impatient drivers, they constantly pose new challenges to scientists. For example, Jules Berne in the century before last described a journey in a submarine in color, H.G. Wells in 1914 published the story "The World Liberated", in which he told about the use of atomic weapons, and Ray Bradbury talked about travel into the past in a time machine. Modern science fiction writers are not lagging behind either - they tell about spatial and temporal portals and about regeneration chambers, in which a whole organism can be recreated from one living cell. As soon as scientists proudly present to the world another realized fantasy of artists, the following goals are immediately set for them.
But sometimes new devices outstrip the needs of modern society. The so-called premature inventions are interesting in that their creators anticipated the emergence of this need in the future. The most famous examples are:
♦ Leonardo da Vinci: helicopter, gun carriage, rifled firearms, rolling and drawing mills, centrifugal pump, hydraulic press and parachute.
♦ Kulibin: lantern with a mirror reflector (prototype spotlight), elevator
and a flexible leg prosthesis.
Of course, there is also a directly opposite situation, when inventions are late, that is, there are all the prerequisites for creating a new device, and scientists cannot figure out exactly how to design it for them. Here are a couple of such examples:
♦ The first laser only started working
in 1960, although theoretically they could have been created immediately after the appearance of Einstein's work on the quantum theory of induced radiation (1916).
♦ Telescopes were used as early as the 13th century, but it took another four centuries to use four pairs of glasses instead of one pair and thus create a telescope.
Unfortunately, the history of discoveries and inventions has its own dark periods... Too often, artificial barriers have been created before scientific advances. For centuries, the church has been a brake on progress. The most famous examples of the pursuit of innovation for ideological reasons in the XX century. there are persecutions of geneticists ("the reactionary doctrine of the priest Mendel") and cybernetics ("the corrupt girl" of imperialism) in the USSR, which led to a catastrophic lag in these areas. Well, nowadays financial censorship is becoming more and more clear. For example, there are cases when research in the field of solar energy was simply suppressed by representatives of large oil concerns. Perhaps the age of environmentally friendly energy will come to the planet only after the last drop of black gold is sold.
Despite these negative moments, practice shows that any phenomenon existing in nature will sooner or later be discovered, and an invention, especially if it is based on any discovery or has serious developments in the past, will certainly come true. Thus, there is no doubt that inventive creativity develops in accordance with certain laws.
This gives hope that more efficient mechanisms for predicting new inventions can be created in the future. One of the methods of such a forecast is the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), created in the USSR, but developed in the industrially developed countries of the West and East.
Disсovery magazine July 2009
To make a scientific discovery, you need outstanding knowledge, ability, skills and hard work. And a little bit of luck. Below is a list of ten scientific inventions made by chance.
When a silicon chip created by graduate student Jamie Link broke into pieces and continued to function, a network of small wireless microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), or so-called "smart dust", was invented.
Penicillin was discovered by biologist Alexander Flemming when a fungus settled on a staphylococcus culture he left in the laboratory, which completely destroyed it.
Georges de Mestral, an engineer from Switzerland, drew attention to the structure of the fruits of the burdock attached to his trousers. This is how the Velcro fastener appeared, which attracted NASA. Such fasteners are now used to secure objects in zero gravity conditions, as well as parts of flight suits.
When the American engineer Percy Spencer, who worked for Raytheon, passed by the magnetron device, a bar of chocolate melted in his pocket. Thus, a device that generates microwaves through the interaction of a magnetic field and a stream of electrons became the basis for the invention of the microwave oven.
Radioactive radiation was discovered by Henri Becquerel, who accidentally wrapped photographic plates prepared for the experiment, along with a crystal of potassium uranyl sulfate. After a few days, the plates turned out to be overexposed.
Radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson built an antenna for experiments in the field of satellite communications, which for some reason had an inexplicably high noise temperature. And only after a conversation with astrophysicist Robert Dicke, the scientists realized that they had discovered the relic radiation. This discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Teflon or polytetrafluoroethylene was discovered by the American chemist Roy Plunkett in April 1938, when the tetrafluoroethylene gas he pumped into cylinders under pressure polymerized into a white paraffin-like substance.
Vulcanization of rubber
In the 1830s, natural rubber became very popular as a material for waterproof footwear, but it quickly disappointed consumers because it could not withstand frost and heat. Researcher Charles Goodyear disagreed that rubber has no future. He started looking for a way to improve him. The experiments carried out by the self-taught chemist did not bring the desired result: all his products came out unstable to high temperatures and, when heated, turned into a liquid substance. Until, in 1839, a drop of a mixture of rubber and sulfur he had prepared accidentally fell on a hot stove, transforming into a rather strong and elastic rubber.
Coca-Cola was invented by the pharmacist John Pemberton, who was looking for a cure for a headache. He created a mixture of coca leaves, cola nuts and damian leaves. Later, the scientist's assistant accidentally mixed the drug with soda water, thereby creating the world's favorite drink.
Viagra was originally developed by pharmacists from the American company "Pfizer" as a drug to improve coronary blood supply in the myocardium, as well as for the treatment of angina pectoris and ischemic disease hearts. However, in 1992, after clinical trials, it was found that the new synthesized drug did not have a sufficiently effective effect in the treatment of angina pectoris, but had another feature - it caused an increase in erectile function in men.
Share on social media networks
As Plato said, science rests on sensations. The 10 random scientific discoveries below are further confirmation of this. Of course, scientific schools, scientific work, and in general, whole lives devoted to science have not been canceled, but luck and chance can sometimes also do their job.
Penicillin
The invention of penicillin - a whole group of antibiotics that can treat many bacteriological infections - is one of the long-standing scientific legends, but in reality it is just a story about dirty dishes. Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming decided to interrupt the laboratory study of staphylococcus in the laboratory and took a month's leave. Upon arrival, he discovered a strange mold on the bacteria-laden dishes left behind - mold that killed all the bacteria.
Microwave
Sometimes a light snack is enough for a scientific discovery. American engineer Percy Spencer, who worked for Raytheon, once, passing by a magnetron (a vacuum tube that emitted microwaves), noticed that the chocolate in his pocket had melted. In 1945, after a series of experiments (including an exploding egg), Spencer invented the first microwave oven. The first microwaves, like the first computers, looked bulky and unrealistic, but in 1967 compact microwaves began to appear in American homes.
Velcro
Not only can a snack be good for science, but also a walk in the fresh air. While traveling in the mountains in 1941, the Swiss engineer George Mestral noticed a burdock that clung to his pants and his dog's fur. On closer inspection, he saw that the hooks of the burdock clung to everything that was in the form of a loop. This is how the Velcro fastener appeared. In English it sounds like "Velcro", which is a combination of the words "velvet" (corduroy) and "crochet" (crochet). The most notable user of stickies in the 1960s was NASA, using them in astronaut suits and to secure objects in zero gravity.
The Big Bang Theory
The discovery of the prevailing theory of the origin of the universe began with noise similar to radio interference. In 1964, while working with the Holmdel antenna (a large horn-shaped antenna used as a radio telescope in the 1960s), astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias heard background noise that puzzled them. Discarding most of the existing causes of noise, they turned to the theory of Robert Dicke, according to which the radiation remnants from the Big Bang that formed the Universe became background cosmic radiation. 50 kilometers from Wilson and Penzias, at Princeton University, Dicke himself was looking for this background radiation, and when he heard about their discovery, he told his colleagues: "Guys, it looks like this is a sensation." Wilson and Penzias later received the Nobel Prize.
Teflon
In 1938, scientist Roy Plunkett was working on how to make refrigerators more suitable for the home and replace the then existing refrigerant, which consisted mainly of ammonia, sulfur dioxide and propane. After opening a container containing one of the samples he was working on, Plunkett found that the gas inside had evaporated, leaving behind a strange, slippery rosin-like appearance that was resistant to high temperatures. In the 1940s, this material was used in a development project nuclear weapons, and a decade later - in the automotive industry. It was only in the 60s that Teflon began to be used in the usual way for us - for non-stick cookware.
Vulcanizate
In the 1830s, vegetable rubber was used to make water-repellent boots, but it had one big problem - it was not resistant to high and low temperatures. It was believed that rubber has no future, but Charles Goodyear disagreed with this. After years of trying to make rubber more reliable, the scientist stumbled upon what turned into his greatest discovery, quite by accident. In 1839, while demonstrating one of his last experiments, Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber on a hot stove. The result is a charred skin-like substance in an elastic band. Thus, the rubber has become resistant to temperatures. Goodyear did not profit from his invention and died, leaving huge debts. Already 40 years after his death, the still known Goodyear company took his name.
Coca Cola
The inventor of Coca-Cola was not a businessman, candy dealer, or anyone else who dreamed of getting rich. John Pemberton just wanted to invent a normal cure for headaches. As a pharmacist by trade, he used two ingredients: coca leaves and cola nuts. When his laboratory assistant accidentally mixed them with soda water, the world saw the first Coca-Cola. Sadly, Pemberton died before his potion became one of the most popular drinks on Earth.
Radioactivity
TO scientific discovery bad weather can also result. In 1896, the French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel conducted an experiment on a crystal enriched with uranium. He believed that sunlight was the reason that the crystal burned its image on a photographic plate. When the sun disappeared, Becquerel decided to pack his things to continue the experiment on another clear day. A few days later, he took out a crystal from a drawer, but the image on the photographic plate lying on top was, as he described, hazy. The crystal emitted beams that cloudy the plate. Becquerel did not think about the name of this phenomenon and offered to continue the experiment to two colleagues - Pierre and Marie Curie.
Viagra
Angina is a common name for chest pain, especially spasms in the coronary arteries. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer developed a pill called UK92480 to narrow these arteries and relieve pain. However, the pill that failed in its original purpose had a very strong side effect (you probably guessed which one) and was later renamed Viagra. Last year, Pfizer sold these little blue pills worth $ 288 million.
Smart dust
Housework can be annoying at times, especially when dust covers your entire face. Jamie Link, a chemist at the University of California at San Diego, worked on one silicon chip. When it accidentally crashed, the tiny pieces continued to send signals, acting as small sensors. She dubbed these small self-collecting particles "smart dust." Today, smart dust has tremendous potential, especially in the fight against tumors in the body.You may not be aware of this, but many of the things you use every day appeared completely by accident! The straw from which you sip your cocktail? Randomness. Velcro, which you fasten your son's boots with? Randomness. The Penicillin Dose That Saved Your Neighbor's Life? Randomness. Today we decided to focus on inventions that turned out to be completely random. Believe me, you will be interested to know about these 25 inventions that changed the world!
25.Saccharin
Remember that pink bag of sweetener you find on the table in a restaurant? No matter how cute he looks, you will be surprised how he appeared. In 1879, Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist trying to find alternative uses for coal tar, returned home for dinner after a long day at work and noticed that his wife's cookies tasted much sweeter than usual. Having figured out what was happening, he realized that he had not washed his hands after work, and the remains of coal tar on his palms sweetened the cookies.
24. "Smart Dust"
Photo: Public Domain
Although most students would be upset if they exploded in front of their eyes homework Jamie Link, a graduate student at the University of California, took advantage of this situation and ultimately changed the world. After the silicon chip she was working on was accidentally destroyed, she realized that parts of it could still function as sensors. Today they are used to detect everything from deadly tumors to biological agents.
23. Potato chips
Photo: Public Domain
In 1853, George Crum, the chef of a New York restaurant, accidentally invented potato chips when an annoying customer returned his fries to the kitchen several times because they were raw. Wanting to teach the client a lesson, Krum sliced the potatoes very thinly, fried them until crispy and drowned them in salt. To his surprise, the boring customer loved what would become potato chips.
22. Coca-Cola
Photo: Public Domain
Although it is common knowledge today that this list would be incomplete without a veteran Civil War turned pharmacist, John Pemberton, and a product that he originally conceived as a cure for several ailments such as opium addiction and indigestion. Instead, he invented one of the most popular drinks in the world. It also became popular because it originally contained cocaine, among other ingredients.
21. Fruit ice
Photo: Public Domain
In 1905, soda became the most popular drink on the market. 11-year-old Frank Epperson decided he wanted to save money and make his own soda at home. He mixed powder and water, and it tasted very much like a popular drink, but then the boy left the mixture on the porch overnight. The temperature dropped below freezing, and when Frank left the house in the morning, he found that his mixture was frozen, along with the stirring stick left in it.
20. Ice cream cone
Photo: Public Domain
Although ice cream has been served on plates for many years, the cone ice cream did not appear until 1904 at the World's Fair. The ice cream booth at the show was so active that they quickly ran out of plates, while the trade at the nearby waffle booth was very poor. Then two kiosk owners got the idea to roll the waffle into a cone and put a ball of ice cream on top. This is how the ice cream cone was born.
19. Teflon
Photo: Public Domain
If you've ever made an omelette, you can thank Roy Plunkett, a chemist who worked for DuPont in the early 20th century, for stumbling across a non-reactive, non-sticky chemical while experimenting with refrigerants. ... Dupont quickly patented this finding, and today we know the substance as Teflon, a frying pan coating that prevents eggs from sticking.
18. Vulcanized rubber
Photo: Public Domain
Charles Goodyear spent years trying to find a way to make rubber resistant to heat and cold. After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally stumbled upon a mixture that worked. One evening, before turning off the lights, he accidentally spilled some rubber, sulfur and lead on the stove, causing the mixture to char and harden, but it could be used to make shoes and tires.
17. Plastic
Photo: Public Domain
Shellac was the main insulation material in the early 1900s, but since it was made from beetles native to Southeast Asia, the material was not cheap. For this reason, chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland decided he could make some money by creating an alternative. However, he ended up with a moldable material that could be heated to extremely high temperatures without breaking the shape. Today it is known as plastic.
16. Radioactivity
Photo: Public Domain
In 1896, physicist Henri Becquerel was trying to create fluorescent materials that could generate X-rays under the influence of the sun. However, during the experiment, the sky was covered with clouds for a whole week. After placing all his materials in a box, Henri returned a week later to find that the image of the uranium rock remained on the photographic plate without any exposure to light.
15. Lilac color
Photo: Public Domain
Surprisingly, 18-year-old chemist William Perkin, who was searching for a cure for malaria, accidentally and forever changed the world of fashion. In 1856, one of his experiments did not go according to plan, and the result was what seemed like nothing more than a muddy mess. However, upon examining it, William noticed a beautiful color emitted from the Petri dish. Thus, he invented the world's first synthetic dye and discovered the color purple for the world.
14. Pacemaker
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Wilson Greatbatch was working on an invention that recorded the beats of the human heart when the wrong resistor was accidentally inserted. The result is the perfect imitator. heart rate... The first implantable pacemaker was born.
13. Note paper
Photo: Public Domain
In 1968, Spencer Silver, a chemist working for 3M, came across a low tack adhesive that he found was strong enough to hold the paper to the surface, but weak enough not to rip when peeled off. ... After numerous unsuccessful attempts to find a marketable application for this product, one of Silver's colleagues, Art Fry, decided that the glue would be perfect for a non-slip bookmark. So is note paper.
12. Microwave 
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Anyone reluctant to cook should thank Percy Spencer, a Navy radar specialist who was fiddling with microwave emitters when he felt that chocolate bar in my pocket starts to melt. It was 1945, and since then the world, or rather the cuisine, has never been the same.
11. Slinky
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
During World War II, Navy engineer Richard James tried to find a way to use springs aboard Navy ships so that sensitive instruments would not break if he accidentally dropped one. He was amused that the spring immediately straightened and sank onto the table. Since then, kids everywhere have enjoyed playing with the slinky.
10. Play Before
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the smelly, sticky substance that kids have played with for decades was originally intended to clean wallpaper. But at the beginning of the 20th century, people stopped using coal for heating, which meant that the wallpaper in their homes was now relatively clean. Luckily for Cleo McVicker, the inventor, his son discovered another use for this substance - sculpting.
9. Superglue
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Harry Coover, a Kodak lab researcher, was developing plastic scope lenses when he came across a synthetic cyanoacrylate adhesive. At the time, he found it too sticky to be useful. However, later the discovery was rediscovered, and today we use this product as "superglue".
8. Velcro
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
In 1948, Swiss engineer George de Mestral was out hunting with his dog when he noticed the thorns clinging to its fur. In the end, he managed to reproduce this effect in his laboratory, but it was not until the 1960s that NATO appeared and began to use this material in his space program, so this "lightning without lightning" was popularized.
7. X-rays
Photo: Public Domain
In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen conducted an experiment using cathode rays and discovered that the fluorescent cardboard in the room glows. And this despite the fact that there was a thick block between the cathode beam and the cardboard. The only explanation was that the light rays passed through this solid block.
6. Safety glass
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
One day, Edouard Benedictus, a French chemist, accidentally knocked a flask off his desk. It fell, but instead of breaking, it just cracked. The flask was filled with cellulose nitrate or liquid plastic, which evaporated and left a thin but strong film inside. This led the chemist to obtain the first safe patent, which is most often used for vehicle windshields.
5. Corn flakes
Photo: Public Domain
Will Keith Kellogg began helping his brother, John, prepare meals for patients at the sanatorium where he worked. Once he left the bread dough for several hours. Deciding to bake it anyway, he received the first batch of cornflakes.
4. Dynamite
Photo: shutterstock
It seems that humanity has been looking for a way to blow things up for a long time. Gunpowder and nitroglycerin have been around for many years. However, the question of instability arises, especially with regard to nitroglycerin. Only after Alfred Nobel accidentally discovered a method of preserving this substance without losing its power, people were able to detonate whatever they wanted.
3. Anesthesia
Photo: Public Domain
This is not to say that we owe the advent of anesthesia to one person, since Crawford Long, William Morton and Charles Jackson contributed to the search and practical application of anesthesia. They noticed that drugs like nitric oxide or laughing gas used for recreational purposes are effective sedatives. Eventually, surgeons began using ether during operations, paving the way for modern anesthetics.
2. Stainless steel
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Next time you enjoy your dinner with a stainless steel fork in hand, don't forget to thank the 20th century gun manufacturers for hiring Harry Brearly. British metallurgist Brearley was asked to design a barrel that does not rust. After testing your creation with various substances corrosive like lemon juice, he realized that it would be an ideal material for cutlery.
1. Penicillin
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Staphylococcus aureus microbiologist Alexander Fleming added some bacteria to a petri dish before going on vacation. He expected the bacteria to grow, but when he returned, he was surprised to find mold growing in the bowl. Close inspection revealed that the mold had produced a byproduct that stopped the growth of staphylococcus aureus. This is how the first antibiotic, penicillin, appeared.
What is needed for an invention? Many will answer that it will take months and years of research and experimentation. In classic cases, this is exactly what happens. However, history knows many cases when important inventions were made absolutely by accident. Moreover it comes not only about scientific, but also quite everyday things. Let's talk about the most famous of them.
Penicillin. The discovery of penicillin took place in 1928. The author of the accidental invention was Alexander Fleming, who at that time was engaged in influenza research. According to legend, the scientist was not careful enough and did not bother with frequent washing of laboratory glassware immediately after research. So, he could store influenza cultures for 2-3 weeks in 30-40 cups at a time. And then one day, in one of the Petri dishes, the scientist found mold, which, to his amazement, was able to destroy the seeded culture of staphylococcus bacteria. This aroused Fleming's interest, it turned out that the mold, which was infected with the culture, belongs to a very rare species. She most likely got to the laboratory from the room one floor below, it was there that mold samples taken from patients with bronchial asthma were grown. Fleming left the cup that was to become famous on the table and went to rest. Then a cold snap set in London, which created favorable conditions for the growth of mold. The subsequent warming favored the growth of bacteria. It turned out later. That it was precisely such a combination of circumstances that gave birth to such an important discovery. Moreover, its significance has stepped far beyond the scope of only the 20th century. After all, penicillin has helped and is still helping to save the lives of millions of people. People paid tribute to the memory of the scientist, after Fleming's death he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, placing him on a par with the most famous Englishmen. In Greece, on the day of Fleming's death, national mourning was even declared.
X-rays or X-Rays. The discovery was made in 1895 by the physicist Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen. The scientist conducted experiments in a darkened room, trying to understand whether the cathode rays, discovered only recently, could pass through a vacuum tube or not. After changing the shape of the cathode, Roentgen accidentally saw that a blurry greenish cloud had appeared on the chemically cleaned screen at a distance of several pounds. The impression was that the faint flash from the induction coil could be reflected in the mirror. The scientist was so interested in this effect that he devoted seven whole weeks to it, practically without leaving the laboratory. As a result, it turned out that the glow arises from the direct rays emanating from the cathode ray tube. The very same radiation gives a shadow, and it cannot be deflected by a magnet. After applying the effect on humans, it became clear that bones cast a denser shadow than soft tissues. It is still used today in fluoroscopy. In the same year, the first X-ray image appeared. It was a snapshot of the hand of the scientist's wife, on whose finger a golden ring was clearly visible. So the first subject was the woman, whom the men could see through. Then they did not know anything about the danger of radiation - there was even a photo studio where they took single and family photographs.
Vulcanized rubber. In 1496, Columbus brought a wonderful thing from the West Indies - rubber balls. Then it seemed magical, but not very useful fun. In addition, rubber had its drawbacks - it smelled and rotted quickly, and when it was warm it became too sticky, and hardened strongly in the cold. It is not surprising that people could not find a use for rubber for a long time. Only 300 years later, in 1839, this problem was solved by Charles Goodyear. In his chemical laboratory, the scientist tried to mix rubber with magnesia, nitric acid, lime, but to no avail. An attempt to mix rubber with sulfur also ended in failure. But then, quite by accident, this mixture was dropped on a hot oven. This is how the elastic rubber that surrounds us everywhere today has turned out. These are car tires, balls and galoshes.
Cellophane. In 1908, the Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger, who works for the textile industry, was looking for ways to create a coating for kitchen tablecloths that would be as stain-resistant as possible. The developed covering in the form of rigid viscose was too tough for the intended purposes, however, Jacques believed in this material, proposing to use it for packaging products. However, the first machine for the production of cellophane appeared only 10 years later - this is how long it took the Swiss scientist to realize his idea.
Safety glass. Today this combination of words is not surprising, but in 1903 everything was completely different. Then the French scientist Edouard Benedictus dropped an empty glass flask on his leg. The dishes did not break and this surprised him very much. Of course, the walls were covered with a network of cracks, but the shape remained intact. The scientist tried to find out what caused this phenomenon. It turned out that before that there was a collodion solution in the flask, which is a solution of cellulose nitrates in a mixture of ethanol with ethyl ether. Although the liquid evaporated, a thin layer of it remained on the walls of the vessel. At this time, the automotive industry developed in France. Then the windshield was made of ordinary glass, which entailed many injuries to drivers. Benedictus understood how his invention could be used in this area and thereby save many lives. However, the cost of implementation was so high that it was simply postponed for decades. Only decades after World War I, during which triplex was used as glass for gas masks, safety glass was also used in the automotive industry. The pioneer was Volvo in 1944.
Scotchgard protective material. In 1953, Patsy Sherman, an employee of the 3M Corporation, developed a rubber material that would successfully withstand interaction with aviation fuel. But suddenly one sloppy technician spilled one of the experimental compounds right on her new tennis shoes. It is quite obvious that Patsy was upset as she could not clean her shoes with alcohol or soap. However, this failure only pushed the woman to new research. And now, just a year after the incident, the Scotchgard drug was born, which protects various surfaces from contamination - from fabrics to cars.
Sticky notes - memo stickers. This random invention is also known as post-it notes. In 1970, Spencer Silver, who worked for the same 3M corporation, tried to develop a super-strong adhesive. However, its results were depressing - the resulting mixture was constantly smeared over the surface of the paper, but if they tried to stick it to something, then after a while the leaf fell off, leaving no traces on the surface. Four years later, another employee of the same company, Arthur Fry, who sang in the church choir, figured out how to improve the search for psalms in the book. To do this, he pasted bookmarks there, smeared with the composition developed earlier. This helped the stickers stay inside the book for a long time. Since 1980, the history of the release of post-it notes - one of the most popular office products - began.
Super glue. This substance is also called Krazy Glue, but in fact its correct name is "cyanoacrylate (cyanoacrylate)". And his invention was also an accident. The author of the discovery was Dr. Harry Coover, who, during World War II in 1942, was looking in his laboratory for a way to make the plastic for gun sights transparent. As a result of the experiments, cyanoacrylate was obtained, which in no way solved the required problem. This substance quickly hardened and adhered to everything, spoiling valuable laboratory equipment. Only many years later, in 1958, the scientist realized that his invention could be used for the benefit of mankind. The most useful was the ability of the composition to instantly seal ... human wounds! This saved the lives of many soldiers in Vietnam. With the wounds sealed with miracle glue, the wounded could already be transported to the hospital. In 1959, an extraordinary demonstration of glue took place in America. There the host of the program was lifted in the air on two steel plates glued together with a drop of composition. Later, during the demonstrations, both televisions and cars were raised into the air.
Velcro or Velcro. It all started in 1941, when the Swiss inventor George de Mestral was walking his dog as usual. Upon returning home, it turned out that both the owner's coat and the entire coat of the dog were covered with burdock. The curious Swiss decided to examine under a microscope how the plant manages to cling so firmly. It turned out that it was all the fault - tiny hooks with which the burdock was attached to the wool almost tightly. Guided by a peeped principle, George created two ribbons with the same small hooks that would cling to each other. This is how the alternative clasp appeared! However, the mass production of a useful product began only 14 years later. Astronauts were one of the first to use such Velcro straps, who fasten their spacesuits this way.
Popsicle. The author of this invention was only eleven years old, and the name of the young man was Frank Epperson. What he discovered will be called by many as one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century. Luck smiled at the boy when he dissolved soda powder in water - such a drink was popular with children at that time. For some reason, Frank did not manage to drink the liquid right away, he left a stirring stick in the glass and left it on the street for a while. The weather was frosty then and the mixture quickly froze. The boy liked the funny frozen thing on a stick, because it could be licked with his tongue, and not drunk. With a laugh, Frank began to show his discovery to everyone. When the boy grew up, he remembered the invention of his childhood. And now, after 18 years, sales of "Epsicles" fruit ice cream started, which had as many as 7 flavor options. Today, this type of delicacy is so popular that more than three million popsicle popsicle ice lollies are sold annually in America alone.
Garbage bag. Mankind received a waste bag only in 1950. Once the municipality of his city turned to Harry Vasilyuk, an engineer and inventor, with a request to solve the problem of waste spilling when loading garbage trucks. For a long time Vasilyuk designed a device that works on the principle of a vacuum cleaner. But then suddenly a different idea dawned on him. According to legend, one of his acquaintances accidentally exclaimed: "I need a garbage bag!". It was then that Vasilyuk realized that only disposable bags should be used for operations with garbage, which he proposed to make of polyethylene. First, such bags were used in hospitals in Winnipeg, Canada. The first garbage bags for individuals appeared only in the 1960s. I must say that Vasilik's invention turned out to be very useful, because now one of the global tasks of mankind is just waste disposal. And this invention, although it does not contribute to the direct solution of the problem, indirectly still helps.
Supermarket trolley. Sylvan Goldman was the owner of a large grocery store in Oklahoma City. And so he noticed that customers do not always take some goods, because they are simply difficult to carry! Then Goldman invented the first shopping trolley in 1936. The businessman himself came to the idea of his invention by accident - he saw how one of the customers put a heavy bag on a toy car, which his son was rolling on a string. The merchant first attached wheels to an ordinary basket, and then, calling on the help of mechanics, he also created a prototype of a modern cart. The mass production of this device began in 1947. It was this invention that allowed the birth of such a phenomenon as supermarkets.
Pacemaker. Among random inventions of humanity are also devices. In this row stands out the pacemaker, which helps to save the lives of millions of people suffering from heart disease. In 1941, engineer John Hopkins was researching hypothermia for the Navy. He was tasked with finding a way to maximize heating of a person who had been in frost or ice water for a long time. To address this issue, John tried to use high-frequency radio waves to heat the body. However, he found that if the heart stopped due to hypothermia, it could be restarted by stimulation with electrical impulses. This discovery led to the first pacemaker in 1950. At that time, it was bulky and heavy, and its use sometimes even led to the formation of burns in patients. The second accidental discovery in this area belongs to the medic Wilson Greatbatch. He tried to create a device for recording heart rhythms. Once he accidentally inserted the wrong resistor into his device and saw oscillations in the electrical network, similar to the rhythm of the human heart. Two years later, with the help of Greatbatch, the first implantable pacemaker was born, delivering artificial impulses to stimulate heart activity.
Potato chips. In 1853, in the town of Saratoga, New York, a regular but particularly capricious customer literally exhausted the staff of one cafe. This man was the railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, and he constantly refused the offered fries, considering it thick and wet. In the end, the chef George Krum got tired of cutting the tubers thinner and thinner, and he decided to take revenge or just play a trick on the annoying visitor. Several waffle-thin slices of potatoes were fried in oil and served to Cornelius. The grouch’s first reaction was predictable — now the slices seemed too thin to be pricked with a fork. However, after trying a few of them, the visitor was finally satisfied. As a result, other visitors also wished to taste the new dish. Soon a new dish called "Saratoga Chips" appeared on the menu, and the chips themselves began their triumphant march around the world.
LSD. The accidental discovery of d-lysergic acid diethylamide led to a whole cultural revolution. Few people today can dispute this fact, because the hallucinogen, discovered by the Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman in 1938, largely contributed to the formation of the hippie movement in the 60s. Interest in this substance was quite high, and it also had a huge impact on the research and treatment of neurological diseases. In fact, Dr. Hoffman discovered LSD as a hallucinogen while participating in pharmaceutical research in Basel, Switzerland. Doctors were trying to create a drug that would relieve pain during childbirth. When synthesizing what was later called LSD, Hoffman initially did not find any interesting properties in the substance and hid it in storage. The real properties of LSD were revealed only in April 1943. Hoffman worked with the substance without gloves, and some of it entered the body through the skin. When Albert rode home on a bicycle, he was surprised to see "an endless stream of fantastic paintings, unusual shapes with a rich and kaleidoscopic play of color." In 1966, LSD was outlawed in the United States, and soon the ban spread to other countries, which greatly complicated the study of the hallucinogen. One of the earliest researchers was Dr. Richard Alpert, who claimed that by 1961 he had tested LSD at 200 sites, 85% of which said they had the most rewarding experiences of their lives.
Microwave. And in this case, a completely different device was invented. So, in 1945, the American engineer Percy Spencer created magnetrons. These devices were supposed to generate microwave radio signals for the first radars. After all, they played an important role in the Second World War. But the fact that microwaves can help cook food was discovered quite by accident. One day, standing near a working magnetron, Spencer saw that a bar of chocolate had melted in his pocket. The inventor's mind quickly realized that those microwaves were to blame. Spencer decided to experiment with popcorn and eggs. The latter, as expected for us, modern ones, exploded. The benefits of microwaves turned out to be obvious, over time, the first microwave oven was also made. At that time, it weighed about 340 kilograms and was the size of a large modern refrigerator.
