Serendipitous inventions

Applying a "clustering algorithm" to the original list from Wikipedia (below), some interesting coincidences appear:

 

Sweet Stuff:  Acesumfame, Cyclamate, and Aspartame artificial sweeteners (courtesy of the long tradition of sloppy chemists accidentally tasting things; see LSD.)

 

The "Wrong Way Corrigan" cluster:

    High-temperature superconductivity, discovered while looking for a better insulator.

   Post-it notes - world's weakest adhesive found while looking for strongest one

 

The "signal at zero" cluster, for discoveries found in the control sample:

   Infrared radiation - gee, my 'control' measurement is higher than my 'signal' measurement...

    Cosmic Gamma-ray bursts - seems like we're getting a lot of 'false positives' from the nuclear bomb detector....

   Microwave background radiation - why is the noise floor of my receiver 4 degrees K?

 

The "dirty lab glassware" award goes to:

    Penicillin - mold contamination

   Polyethylene - oxygen contamination

   Teflon - iron contamination

 

The "oops" award, for discoveries made after dropping something:

   Vulcanized rubber - latex and sulfur, on a hot stove

   Indigo - a mercury thermometer

   ScotchGard - splashed onto sneakers

   Silly Putty - "my synthetic rubber sample bounces!" 

 

While the "sloppy cooking" prize is shared by

    Chocolate Chip cookies

   Corn Flakes

    Potato Chip

 

Chemistry

• Gelignite by Alfred Nobel, when he accidentally mixed collodium (gun cotton) with nitroglycerin
• Polyethylene by Hans von Pechmann, who prepared it by accident in 1898 while heating diazomethane
• Silly Putty by James Wright, on the way to solving another problem: finding a rubber substitute for the United States during World War II.
• Chemical synthesis of urea, by Friedrich Woehler. He was attempting to produce ammonium cyanate by mixing potassium cyanate and ammonium chloride and got urea, the first organic chemical to be synthesised, often called the 'Last Nail' of the coffin of the Élan vital Theory
• Pittacal, the first synthetic dyestuff, by Carl Ludwig Reichenbach. The dark blue dye appeared on wooden posts painted with creosote to drive away dogs who urinated on them.
• Mauve, the first aniline dye, by William Henry Perkin. At the age of 18, he was attempting to create artificial quinine. An unexpected residue caught his eye, which turned out to be the first aniline dye—specifically, mauveine, sometimes called aniline purple.
• Racemization, by Louis Pasteur. While investigating the properties of sodium ammonium racemate he was able to separate for the first time the two optical isomers of the salt. His luck was twofold: it is the only racemate salt to have this property, and the room temperature in that day was slightly inferior to the point of separation.
• Teflon, by Roy J. Plunkett, who was trying to develop a new gas for refrigeration and got a slick substance instead, which was used first for lubrication of machine parts
• Cyanoacrilate-based Superglue (a.k.a. Krazy Glue) was accidentally twice discovered by Dr. Harry Coover, first when he was developing a clear plastic for gunsights and later, when he was trying to develop a heat-resistant polymer for jet canopies.
• Scotchgard moisture repellant used to protect fabrics and leather, was discovered accidentally in 1953 by Patsy Sherman. One of the compounds she was investigating as a rubber material that wouldn't deteriorate when in contact with aircraft fuel. Some of the material spilled onto her new tennis shoes, and would not wash out.
• Cellophane, the most popular clear plastic wrapper, was developed in 1908 by Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger, as a material for covering stain-proof tablecloth.
• The chemical element oxygen
• The chemical element helium
• The chemical element Iodine was discovered by Bernard Courtois in 1811, when he was trying to remove residues with strong acid from the bottom of his saltpeter production plant which used seaweed ashes as a prime material.
• Polycarbonates, a kind of clear hard plastic
• The synthetic polymer celluloid was discovered by British chemist and metallurgist Alexander Parkes in 1856, after observing that a solid residue remained after evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion. Celluloid can be described as the first plastic used for making solid objects (the first ones being billiard balls, substituting for expensive ivory).
• Rayon, the first synthetic silk was discovered by French chemist Hilaire de Chardonnet, an assistant to Louis Pasteur. He spilled a bottle of collodion and found later that he could draw thin strands from the evaporated viscous liquid.
• The possibility of synthesizing indigo, a natural dye extracted from a plant with the same name was discovered by a chemist named Sapper who was heating coal tar when he accidentally broke a thermometer, and its mercury content acted as a catalyst to produce phthalic anhydride, which could readily be converted into indigo.
• The dye monastral blue was discovered in 1928 in Scotland, when chemist A.G. Dandridge heated a mixture of chemicals at high temperature in a sealed iron container. Inadvertently, iron reacted with these compounds, producing some pigments called phthalocyanines. By substituting copper for iron, he produced an even better pigment called 'monastral blue', which became the basis for many new coloring materials for paints, lacquers and printing inks.
• Acesulfame, an artificial sweetener was discovered accidentally in 1967 by Karl Claus at Hoechst AG.
• Another sweetener, cyclamate, was discovered by US chemist Michael Sveda, when he smoked a cigarette accidentally contaminated with a compound he had recently synthesized.
• Aspartame (NutraSweet) was also accidentally ingested by G.D. Searle chemist James Schlatter, who was trying to develop a test for an anti-ulcer drug.
• Post-it note and 3M, the scientist who accidentally discovered it was attempting to design a strong adhesive, but instead developed one that was very weak

Pharmacology

• Penicillin by Alexander Fleming. He failed to disinfect cultures of bacteria when leaving for his vacations, only to find them contaminated with Penicillium molds, which killed the bacteria. However, it should be noted that he had previously done extensive research into antibacterial substances.
• The psychedelic effects of LSD by Albert Hofmann. A chemist, he accidentally ingested a small amount of it upon investigating its properties, and had the first acid trip in history, while cycling to his home in Switzerland.
• 5-fluorouracil's therapeutic action on actinic keratosis, was initially investigated for its anti-cancer actions
• Minoxidil's action on baldness, originally it was an oral agent for treating hypertension. It was observed that bald patients treated with it grew hair too.
• Viagra (sildenafil citrate), an anti-impotence drug. It was initially studied for use in hypertension and angina pectoris. Phase I clinical trials under the direction of Ian Osterloh suggested that the drug had little effect on angina, but that it could induce marked penile erections.
• Retin-A anti-wrinkle action. It was a vitamin A derivative first used for treating acne. The accidental result in some older people was a reduction of wrinkles on the face
• The libido-enhancing effect of l-dopa, a drug used for treating Parkinson's disease. Older patients in a sanatorium had their long-lost interest in sex suddenly revived.
• The first benzodiazepine, chlordiazepoxide (Librium®) was discovered accidentally in 1954 by the Austrian scientist Dr Leo Sternbach (1908-2005), who found the substance while cleaning up his lab
• The first anti-psychotic drug, chlorpromazine, was discovered by French pharmacologist Henri Laborit. He wanted to add an anti-histaminic to a pharmacological combination to prevent surgical shock and accidentally observed that patients treated with it were remarkably calm before the operation.
• the anti-cancer drug cisplatin was discovered by Barnett Rosenberg. He wanted to explore the inhibiting effects of an electric field on the growth of bacteria: it was rather due to an electrolysis product of the platinum electrode he was using.
• Quinine, a derivative of the cinchone tree was probably discovered by an Indian who tried to quench his thirst during a malarial attack by drinking water near the plant and saw the fever abate. Jesuit priests heard the story and popularised its use.
• The anesthetics nitrous oxide and ether
• Mustine, a derivative of the mustard gas (a chemical weapon), used for the treatment of some forms of cancer. In 1943, physicians noted that the white cell counts of US soldiers accidentally exposed when a cache of mustard gas shells were bombed in Bari, Italy, were decreased, and mustard gas was investigated as a therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma.
• The first oral contraceptive (a.k.a. The Pill) was discovered by Dr. Carl Djerassi accidental production of synthetic progesterone and its intentional modification to allow for oral intake
• Prontosil, an antibiotic of the sulfa group was an azo dye. German chemists at Bayer had the wrong idea that selective chemical stains of bacteria would show specific antibacterial activity. Prontosil had it, but in fact it was due to another substance metabolised from it in the body, sulfanilimide.
• Acetylsalicylic acid, or Aspirin, the first synthetic analgesic and antipyretic, was developed by German chemist Felix Hoffmann at Bayer, by the acetylation of salicylic acid, in order to reduce its side effects of nausea. Salisylic acid was used with the wrong notion that it would be an internal disinfectant to fight infections, because it released phenol inside the body.
• Magainin, an antibiotic derived from the skin of frogs
• Aciclovir, an anti-viral for the treatment of Herpes Simplex and varicella Zoster infections

Medicine and Biology

• Bioelectricity, by Luigi Galvani. He was dissecting a frog at a table where he had been conducting experiments with static electricity, Galvani's assistant touched an exposed sciatic nerve of the frog with a metal scalpel, which had picked up a charge, provoking a muscle contraction.
• Neural control of blood vessels, by Claude Bernard
• Anaphylaxis, by Charles Robert Richet, when he tried to reuse dogs that hadn't previously shown allergic reactions to sea anemone toxin, developed them much faster and more intense in the second time
• The role of pancreas in glucose metabolism, by Oskar Minkowski. Dogs that had their pancreas removed for an unrelated physiological investigation, urinated profusely and the urine attracted flies, indicating its high glucose content
• Coronary catheterization was discovered as a method when a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic accidentally injected radiocontrast into the coronary artery instead of the left ventricle.
• The mydriatic effects of belladonna extracts, by Friedrich Ferdinand Runge
• The Pap smear medical test for uterine cancer was discovered by Dr. Georgios Papanikolaou when he was investigating the cycle of cells in the vaginal fluid of a cancerous patient.
• Vaccination, discovered by English physician Edward Jenner, after he observed that milkmaids would not catch smallpox since they caught benign cowpox first.
• Interferon, an antiviral factor, was discovered accidentally by two Japanese virologists, Yasu-ichi Nagano and Yasuhiko Kojima while aiming to develop an improved vaccine for smallpox.

Physics and Astronomy

• Discovery of the planet Uranus by William Herschel. A double beneficiary (see below) Herschel certainly wasn't looking for new planets when he found Uranus. Like many astronomers of his time, he was looking for comets. He first identified Uranus as a comet, naturally, and it was only after noticing the circularity of its orbit and its distance that he proposed that it was a planet, the first "new" one ever.
• Infrared radiation by William Herschel. Herschel was investigating the temperature differences between different colors of visible light by breaking sunlight into a spectrum using a glass prism. He put thermometers into the different visible colors, then put one in the darkness beyond the red end of the spectrum. The latter one, put where there was no light, was to act as a control, to measure the background air temperature and then reference the differences in temperature in the light to that. He intended to subtract it from the other temperatures, but to his surprise he could not do so because that thermometer registered a greater temperature than the others! After trying other positions, such as above or below the spectrum, which did give background air temperature, he correctly concluded that there was non-visible radiation beyond the red end of the visible spectrum. It is possible he could have discovered ultraviolet radiation the same way, except that glass effectively blocks radiation in that region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• S. N. Bose discovered Bose-Einstein statistics when a simple math error surprisingly explained anomalous data.
• High-temperature superconductivity was discovered serendipitously by physicists Johannes Georg Bednorz and Karl Alexander Müller, ironically when they were searching for a material that would be a perfect isolator (nonconducting). They were awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for that.
• Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, by Arno A. Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson. What they thought was an excess electrical noise due to temperature in their antenna at Bell Labs amounted to the long-sought CMBR.
• Radioactivity, by Henri Becquerel. While trying to investigate phosphorescent materials using photographic plates, he stumbled upon uranium.
• X rays, by Wilhelm Roentgen. Interested in investigating cathodic ray tubes, he noted that some fluorescent papers in his lab were illuminated at a distance
• Electromagnetism, by Hans Christian Oersted. While he was setting up his materials for a lecture, he noticed a compass needle deflecting from magnetic north when the electric current from the battery he was using was switched on and off.
• J/Psi meson, by Samuel C.C. Ting and Burton Richter.
• Pulsars, by Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. What these radio-astronomers thought was a radio emission from intelligent sources in a far away galaxy, resulted in the discovery of a new type of rapidly rotating star.
• Cosmic gamma-ray bursts were discovered in the late 1960s by the US Vela satellites, which were built to detect nuclear tests in the Soviet Union
• Metallic hydrogen was found accidentally in March 1996 by a group of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, after a 60-year search.
• The thermoelectric effect was discovered accidentally by Estonian physicist Thomas Seebeck, in 1821, who found that a voltage developed between the two ends of a metal bar when it was submitted to a difference of temperature.
• Pluto's moon Charon was discovered by US astronomer James Christy in 1978. He was going to discard what he thought was a defective photographic plate of Pluto, when his Star Scan machine broke down. While it was being repaired he had time to study the plate again and discovered others in the archives with the same "defect" (a bulge in the planet's image which was actually a large moon).

Inventions

• Velcro by Georges de Mestral. The idea came to him after walking his dog through a field and observing the hooks of burdock attached to his trousers
• Discovery of the principle behind inkjet printers by a Canon engineer. After putting his hot soldering iron by accident on his pen, ink was ejected from the pen's point a few moments later.
• Vulcanization of rubber, by Charles Goodyear. A piece of rubber mixture with sulfur was accidentally left by him on a hot plate, producing hard rubber
• The popsicle came as a commercial idea when Frank Epperson left a glass of soda water outside during the winter, and got a cylindrical block of ice with the stirring stick to hold it.
• Safety glass, by French scientist Edouard Benedictus. In 1903 he accidentally knocked a glass flask to the floor and observed that the broken pieces were held together by a liquid plastic that had evaporated and formed a thin film inside the flask.
• The Ivory-brand handsoap had its unique water floating properties discovered at Procter & Gamble soap factory when an absent-minded worker left the mixing machine run for too long, introducing air bubbles into the soap bar, and customers asked for more of it.
• Photography, by Louis Daguerre
• Post-it Notes by Spencer Silver and Arthur Fry. They tried to develop a new glue at 3:00 AM, but it would not dry. So they devised a new use for it.
• Corn flakes and wheat flakes (Wheaties) were accidentally discovered by the Kellogs brothers in 1898, when they left cooked wheat untended for a day and tried to roll the mass, obtaining a flaky material instead of a sheet.
• The microwave oven was invented as a consequence of radar test carried out in England after World War II, when an engineer walked in front of the antenna while it was on and a chocolate bar in a pocket melted.
• Pyroceramic (used to make Corningware, among other things) was invented by S. Donald Stookey, a chemist working for the Corning company, who noticed crystallization in an improperly cooled batch of tinted glass.

Serendipitous ideas

Some ideas and concepts that came to scientists by means of fortuitous accidents or even dreams are also considered a kind of serendipity. Some examples (coincidentally all are regarded with suspicion by science historians):

• Isaac Newton's famed apple falling from a tree, led to his musings about the nature of gravitation
• The German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz dreamed about Ourobouros, a snake running around and forming a circle, leading to his solution of the closed chemical structure of cyclic compounds, such as benzene
• Archimedes' prototypical cry of Eureka when he made an analogy of specific gravity with his body displacing water in the bathtub

Other examples of serendipity

Stories of accidental discovery in exploration abound, of course, because the aim of exploration is to find new things and places. The principle of serendipity applies here, however, when the explorer had an aim in mind and found another unexpectedly. Some classical cases were:

• The first European to set foot on North America was Leif Ericsson, who was trying to escape from a storm
• The discovery of an entirely new continent by Christopher Columbus, who was actually looking for a new way to India
• South America was also discovered by accident, first by Spaniard Vicente Pinzon, who was only exploring the West Indies previously discovered by him and Columbus, and stumbled upon Northeast of Brazil, in the region now known as Cabo de Santo Agostinho, in the state of Pernambuco. He also discovered the Amazon and Oiapoque rivers; and Pedro Álvares Cabral, a Portuguese admiral, who was sailing with his fleet to India via the South African route discovered by Vasco da Gama and was deviated to the coast of Brazil.