Accidental discoveries and inventions. Scientific discoveries and the course of history Accidental discoveries of scientists

History shows that some scientific discoveries, including those that turned the world upside down, were made quite by accident. Suffice it to recall Archimedes, who, having sank into the bath, discovered the law, later named after him, about bodies immersed in water and the force that pushes them out, or Newton, on whom the famous apple fell. And, finally, Mendeleev, who saw his table of elements in a dream. Perhaps something here is an exaggeration, but there are quite specific examples showing that in science, too, much depends on chance. Wired magazine has collected some of them.

1. Viagra.
As you know, Viagra was originally developed as a remedy for sore throats. Men all over the world should be grateful to the inhabitants of the Welsh city of Merthyr Tidefil. It was here in 1992 that a remarkable side effect of the drug was discovered during trials.

2.LSD.
Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann in 1943 became the first person to try "acid". He noticed the effect of lysergic acid diethylamide on himself when he conducted medical research on this substance and its effect on the birth process.

3. X-ray.
In the 19th century, many scientists were interested in the rays that appear as a result of electrons hitting a metal target. However, the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895. He exposed various objects to this radiation and, changing them, accidentally saw a projection of the bones of his own hand appear on the wall.

4. Penicillin.
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming studied influenza in 1928. One day, he noticed how a blue-green mold (natural penicillin is secreted by mold fungi), multiplying in one of the Petri dishes, killed all the staphylococci that were there.

5. Artificial sweeteners.
The three most common sugar substitutes were only discovered because scientists forgot to wash their hands. Cyclamate (1937) and aspartame (1965) were by-products of medical research, while saccharin (1879) was accidentally discovered in studies of coal tar derivatives.

6. Microwave ovens.
Microwave emitters (magnetrons) operated on Allied radar during World War II. New applications were discovered in 1946, when a magnetron melted a chocolate bar in the pocket of Percy Spencer, one of the engineers at the American company Raytheon.

7. Brandy.
In the Middle Ages, wine merchants often evaporated the water from the drink being transported so that it would not spoil and take up less space. Soon, someone resourceful decided to do without the recovery phase. And so brandy was born.

8. Vulcanized rubber.
Unvulcanized rubber is very unstable to external influences and smells bad. Charles Goodyear, after whom Goodyear was named, discovered the vulcanization process when he accidentally placed a mixture of rubber and sulfur on a hot stove.

9. Potato chips.
Chef George Crum invented the popular snack in 1853. When one of his customers complained that his potatoes were cut too thick, he took the potatoes, cut them into pieces almost paper-thin, and fried them. Thus, chips were born.

10. Buns with raisins.
It is also worth mentioning here the legend described by Vladimir Gilyarovsky, an expert on Moscow, a journalist and writer, that the famous baker Ivan Filippov invented the raisin bun. Governor-General Arseniy Zakrevsky, who somehow bought a fresh polar cod, suddenly discovered a cockroach in it. Filippov, called to the carpet, grabbed the insect and ate it, saying that the general was mistaken - it was a highlight. Returning to the bakery, Filippov ordered to urgently start baking buns with raisins in order to justify himself to the governor.

Modern history shows that many scientific discoveries and inventions were made quite by accident. Below you will see 12 random discoveries that prove that sometimes everything depends on chance.

Potato chips

Chef George Crum invented chips in 1853 when he was fed up with complaints from a mischievous customer that "potatoes weren't crispy enough." Annoyed, George sliced ​​them as thin as possible, fried them in boiling fat and dipped them in salt. The client was delighted.

Popsicles (Popsicle)

In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson prepared himself a drink mix of soda powder and soda water on the porch, stirring it all with a wooden stick, but did not finish it, leaving it all overnight on the steps. The temperature dropped below freezing that night, and he discovered his treat the next morning. After some time, he began to sell ice in the summer in the park, calling it by his own name - epsicle, but having matured, he decided to take up another business. And only 20 years later, he again returned to his invention, patented it and launched mass production. The name was changed to popsicles (Popsicle).

Penicillin

When Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming returned from vacation, he noticed that his bacteria, on which he had been experimenting, had been destroyed by a strange fungus. It was after this incident that modern medicine has undergone tremendous changes. This fact became the basis for the creation of penicillin.

Microwave

One day, Percy Spencer, an engineer working for Raytheon (a defense company in the United States), walked past the Magnetron and noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. A few years later, he successfully created the first microwave oven.

Velcro closure

In 1941, Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral discovered burdock on his pants. He was interested in the tenacity with which he held on, examining the burdock under a microscope, he created the first prototype of the fastener, but the invention got into mass production only after 14 years.

Teflon

Roy Plunkett, an employee of DuPont, was looking for a way to make refrigerators safer, he was trying to find a replacement for freon, an aggressive refrigerant. Another mixture of gases, on which he worked during the night, “evaporated somewhere” and only a white, wax-like substance remained. This substance had many useful qualities such as high heat and frost resistance, remains flexible at -70 +270 degrees. In terms of chemical resistance, it surpasses all synthetic materials.

Coca Cola

John Pemberton Stith was not a businessman. He just wanted to get rid of the headaches. Being a pharmacist, he came up with a recipe that consisted of two ingredients - coca leaves and kola nuts. The resulting drink had tonic properties, but was diluted with ordinary water, one day, by chance, the seller, diluting the syrup, poured carbonated water - this is how the drink that we know to this day was born.

Radioactivity

In 1896, Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity while working on phosphorescence in uranium salts. For the next experiment, bright sunlight was required. He wrapped the uranium crystal in a photographic plate and put it in a dark box. Arriving the next day, he was surprised to find that all the records were already exposed. This discovery prompted Becquerel to investigate the spontaneous emission of nuclear radiation.

"Smart Dust" (Smart Dust)

When chemistry graduate students working on a silicon chip accidentally destroyed it, they discovered that tiny parts were still active. They have been called "smart dust" and today they play an important role in the technologies used to destroy a malignant tumor at the molecular level.

Cornflakes

Keith Kellogg helped his brother, a doctor at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, with patients and their diets, preparing another meal of cornmeal, they were forced to leave. When they arrived back, they found that the dough had become unsuitable for cooking, but they decided to cook the dish anyway. The dough curled up and turned out to be flakes and lumps, in desperation the brothers decided to fry the flakes. What happened exceeded all expectations: the flakes became airy and crispy - it was a hit among patients.

Saccharin

Konstantin Fahlberg, a scientist at Johns Hopkins University, was carrying some chemicals home from the lab. As he finished his lunch, he discovered that the bread tasted oddly sweet despite the fact that he hadn't used sugar. He realized that it was one of the components from the laboratory. In 1884, Fahlberg patented a method for obtaining saccharin and began its industrial production.

Slinky walking spring

In 1943, naval engineer Richard James was developing special spring suspensions that would support and balance secret equipment on ships. When one of the springs accidentally fell off the shelf, it continued to move down the stairs, and James, already at home, made the spring again to amuse the children - it was received with a bang - and so the idea for creating a toy came up

As Plato said, science rests on sensations. The 10 random scientific discoveries below are another confirmation of this. Of course, no one canceled scientific schools, scientific work, and in general whole lives devoted to science, but sometimes luck and chance can also do their job.

Penicillin

The invention of penicillin - a whole group of antibiotics that can treat many bacterial infections - is one of the old scientific legends, but in fact it is just a story about dirty dishes. Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming decided to interrupt the laboratory study of staphylococcus aureus in the laboratory and took a month's leave. Upon arrival, he discovered a strange mold on the left dishes with bacteria - a mold that killed all the bacteria.

Microwave

Sometimes a light snack is enough for a scientific discovery. American engineer Percy Spencer, who worked for the Raytheon company, 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 with an exploding egg), Spencer invented the first microwave oven. The first microwave ovens, like the first computers, looked bulky and unrealistic, but in 1967 compact microwave ovens began to appear in American homes.

Velcro

Not only a snack can be useful for science, but also a walk in the fresh air. While hiking in the mountains in 1941, Swiss engineer George Mestral noticed a burdock that had stuck to his pants and his dog's fur. On closer examination, he saw that the hooks of the burdock clung to everything that had the shape of a loop. This is how Velcro was born. In English, it sounds like "Velcro", which is a combination of the words "velvet" (velveteen) and "crochet" (crochet). The most notable user of Velcro in the 60s 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 today began with noise like 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 greatly. 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 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 refrigerant then available, which consisted mainly of ammonia, sulfur dioxide and propane. After he opened a container containing one of the samples he was working on, Plunkett discovered that the gas inside had evaporated, leaving behind a strange slippery rosin that was resistant to high temperatures. In the 1940s, this material was used in a nuclear weapons project, and a decade later, in the automotive industry. And only in the 60s they began to use Teflon 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 unstable to high and low temperatures. It was believed that rubber had no future, but Charles Goodyear disagreed. After years of trying to make rubber more reliable, the scientist stumbled upon what would become his greatest discovery, quite by accident. In 1839, while demonstrating one of his latest experiments, Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber on a hot stove. The result was a charred leather-like substance in an elastic band. Thus, the rubber became resistant to temperatures. Goodyear did not profit from his invention, and died leaving huge debts. Already 40 years after his death, his name was taken by the still famous Goodyear company.

Coca Cola

The inventor of Coca-Cola was not a businessman, a sweets dealer or anyone else who dreamed of getting rich. John Pemberton just wanted to invent a normal cure for headaches. A pharmacist by profession, he used two ingredients: coca leaves and kola nut. When his lab assistant accidentally mixed them with sparkling water, the world saw the first Coca-Cola. Unfortunately, Pemberton died before his potion became one of the most popular drinks on Earth.

Radioactivity

Bad weather can also lead to a scientific discovery. In 1896, French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel conducted an experiment on a crystal enriched with uranium. He believed that sunlight was the reason why the crystal burned its image on the photographic plate. When the sun disappeared, Becquerel decided to pack up his things so that he could continue the experiment on another clear day. A few days later he took the crystal out of his desk drawer, but the image on the photographic plate on top was, as he described, hazy. The crystal emitted rays that clouded the plate. Becquerel did not think about the name of this phenomenon and suggested that two colleagues, Pierre and Marie Curie, continue the experiment.

Viagra

Angina pectoris is a common name for chest pain, especially spasms in the coronary arteries. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has developed a pill called UK92480 to constrict these arteries and relieve pain. However, the pill, which failed in its original purpose, had a very strong side effect (you can probably guess which one) and was later renamed Viagra. Pfizer sold these little blue pills last year for $288 million.

smart dust

Housework can be irritating at times, especially when the dust is all over your face. Jamie Link, a chemist at the University of California at San Diego, has been working on one silicon chip. When it accidentally crashed, the tiny pieces still continued to send out signals, acting as little sensors. These small, self-assembled particles she dubbed "smart dust." Today, "smart dust" has a huge potential, especially in the fight against tumors in the body.

History shows that some scientific discoveries, including those that turned the world upside down, were made quite by accident. Suffice it to recall Archimedes, who, having sank into the bath, discovered the law, later named after him, about bodies immersed in water and the force that pushes them out, or Newton, on whom the famous apple fell. And, finally, Mendeleev, who saw his table of elements in a dream. Perhaps something here is an exaggeration, but there are quite specific examples showing that in science, too, much depends on chance. Wired magazine has collected some of them.

1. Viagra.

As you know, Viagra was originally developed as a remedy for sore throats. Men all over the world should be grateful to the inhabitants of the Welsh city of Merthyr Tidefil. It was here in 1992 that a remarkable side effect of the drug was discovered during trials.

Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann in 1943 became the first person to try "acid". He noticed the effect of lysergic acid diethylamide on himself when he conducted medical research on this substance and its effect on the birth process.

3. x-ray.

In the 19th century, many scientists were interested in the rays that appear as a result of electrons hitting a metal target. However, the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895. He exposed various objects to this radiation and, changing them, accidentally saw a projection of the bones of his own hand appear on the wall.

4. Penicillin.

Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming studied influenza in 1928. One day, he noticed how a blue-green mold (natural penicillin is secreted by mold fungi), multiplying in one of the Petri dishes, killed all the staphylococci that were there.

5. Artificial sweeteners.
The three most common sugar substitutes were only discovered because scientists forgot to wash their hands. Cyclamate (1937) and aspartame (1965) were by-products of medical research, while saccharin (1879) was accidentally discovered in studies of coal tar derivatives.

6. Microwaves.
Microwave emitters (magnetrons) operated on Allied radar during World War II. New applications were discovered in 1946, when a magnetron melted a chocolate bar in the pocket of Percy Spencer, one of the engineers at the American company Raytheon.

7. Brandy.
In the Middle Ages, wine merchants often evaporated the water from the drink being transported so that it would not spoil and take up less space. Soon, someone resourceful decided to do without the recovery phase. And so brandy was born.

8. Vulcanized rubber.
Unvulcanized rubber is very unstable to external influences and smells bad. Charles Goodyear, after whom Goodyear was named, discovered the vulcanization process when he accidentally placed a mixture of rubber and sulfur on a hot stove.

9. Potato chips.
Chef George Crum invented the popular snack in 1853. When one of his customers complained that his potatoes were cut too thick, he took the potatoes, cut them into pieces almost paper-thin, and fried them. Thus, chips were born.

10. Buns with raisins.
It is also worth mentioning here the legend described by Vladimir Gilyarovsky, an expert on Moscow, a journalist and writer, that the famous baker Ivan Filippov invented the raisin bun. Governor-General Arseniy Zakrevsky, who somehow bought a fresh polar cod, suddenly discovered a cockroach in it. Filippov, called to the carpet, grabbed the insect and ate it, saying that the general was mistaken - it was a highlight. Returning to the bakery, Filippov ordered to urgently start baking buns with raisins in order to justify himself to the governor.

As we have seen from past stories, scientists have been wrong more than once, and not two, and not even three, scientists Seems just born to make mistakes. AND On this as strange as it is and built all modern science. This has been repeatedly stated by many eminent philosophers of science and its researchers, and in fact it is quite correct. Science simply cannot exist without mistakes, and moreover, one can say that mistakes make science, and we will try to make sure of this today by discussing the most famous mistakes of scientists and accidental discoveries in science.

In the last article, we have already touched on quite a lot of well-known mistakes, "illogicalities", oversights, and even frankly well-known scientists. If you haven't read it yet, it's best to start with it. And today we will go even further, it turns out that in science, except for the mistakes of scientists, stupid accidents and copying inventions from nature, there really is nothing.

Mistakes and science

Yes in science there really were a lot of accidents and outright mistakes of scientists, which more than once led to the evolution of knowledge. For example, as I said before, there is even a separate book about Einstein's own mistakes which ultimately made possible all the knowledge and theories that he gave to the world.

And it is even possible that if he hadn't been constantly wrong in his calculations, he wouldn't have come up with even half his theories, and would not have made even half of his discoveries. Maybe lawsuitWith right to err is science, and the best scientist in the world, the one who made the most mistakes in science.

stupid science

You won't believe it, but there have been many cases in the history of science when wonderful advanced technologies were based on even erroneous theories, which at the same time worked perfectly. So the most banal example of stupid but working science is inexplicable heat engine operation.

So for a long time the explanation of how steam engines work was based on erroneous science. caloric theory, which by the way had many followers of famous scientists.

And strangely enough, this did not interfere with the development and evolution of various technical mechanisms at all. So steamboats, steam locomotives and other steam engines somehow worked successfully all this time, and even improved rapidly, of course, despite the fact that stupid science explained them with its incorrect theories. This is probably what scientists call work and develop no matter what🙂 .

paleontologists' mistakes

Although the mistakes of physicists, chemists, mathematicians and other scientific theorists and inventors seem to be understandable, because they work with very complex formulas and theories. But in the history of the mistakes made by scientists, there were other interesting discoveries, it would seem in the sciences, in which it is difficult to make a mistake. For example, in paleontology and the study of animals of ancient times.

It would seem that he found some bones, assembled a skeleton from them, and all the triumph of scientific knowledge, but everything turned out to be not so simple. After all, there have been times when paleontologists put dinosaur heads to tails, or toes clung to the head instead of horns. And even cases where very eminent paleontologists mistook the teeth of pigs found for teeth lossn nyh ancestors of primitive man.

And also when scientists found in the rocks the remains of long-extinct fish, such as Coelicanth, and announced that then these fish species disappeared, as they turned into amphibious creatures proving the theory of evolution.

But then by chance, already in our time, such fish were caught by fishermen, and in different parts of the world. And of course even for a monstrous 75 million years for humans, this fish has not changed at all, again refuting the theory of evolution, not something that would turn into a land animal.

What is this, another mistake of pundits, or anotherA I am an attempt at wishful thinking trying to prove Darwin's theory, which he himself called untenable.

And recently the team Mark Parnel In the magazine nature at all called into question all the previous work of paleontologists. It turned out that in animals and fish after death, their most modern features are the first to disappear.

Respectively, those who study history only from fossils very often mistakenly mistaking fossils for the remains of much older animals than they actually were. So now it would be nice to completely revise this historical science, such an erroneous science, this paleontology.

The most famous mistakes of scientists

In general, what only famous mistakes of scientists were not in this erroneous science, and this is not even taking into account the very old times. Beginning with greedy for gold and eternal life alchemists, And the famous Aristotle until the end of his life believing that some objects fall faster than others.

Or even the mythical element Phlogiston, erroneously explaining burning to the scientists of the Middle Ages, and medieval study of the history of the earth from the Bible. And what can I say if even in physics nothing less than an atom, nothing existed almost to this day.

Not even to mention that doctors only in 1860 realized that surgeons should wash their hands before surgery. Strangely enough, before that there were many scientific theories in medicine, from "bad air" to an imbalance of the four juices, but no one was even supposed to wash their handsA gal, of course surprised at such frequent gangrenes. And this despite the fact that medicine in one form or another has existed for thousands of years.

Well, about whales, elephants and turtles, on which the earth and the geocentric system stand, we will not even remember, modern erroneous science has long disowned them. But besides mistakes, modern scientists also have such an unexpected tool for science as chance.

Random discoveries

A how many modern discoveries have come only as a result of simple carelessness, and not science. Surely you think that the most advanced discoveries come as a result of long reflections, a lot of experiments and a lot of work. But let's let's see which of the famous discoveries were made by accident.

Everyone knows the famous accidental discoveries of both scientists and amateurs, ranging from Columbus who, through stupidity, negligence, or poor navigational methods, discovered a whole new continent, America., instead of the mythical India or Asia.

Yes, the same famous antibiotics were discovered not by long scientific searches, but from accidental mold contamination of test tubes with pathogenic bacteria, accidentally or simply by negligence, left at an open window. So carelessly introduced the famous penicillin and revolutionized modern medicine, but today useful antibiotics save the lives of many millions of people.

Discoveries made by accident

What can I say, among the discoveries made by chance there is almost everything that a person needs, from banal trifles, for example, sticky multi-colored leaves to remind us on our table, to very high-tech devices.

Even The microwave oven was invented by the Navy, who accidentally discovered a melted candy bar in his pocket, when studying and trying to improve military radars. It is not known what happened to the health of this unfortunate inventor, but in fact a microwave oven is now in almost every kitchen.

Random inventions in food

Even the most famous Coca Cola carbonated drink became carbonated only from the fact that in the pharmacy where it was sold, some Stupid salesman accidentally diluted Colla with water from the wrong tap. That is, he accidentally poured carbonated water, but the customers liked it. And now tens of billions of dollars are made from this drink every year. Think not bad for a simple accident.

Yes, and there are more than enough such accidental inventions or design errors both in scientists and in the food industry. Even everyone's favorite French fries were also cooked for the first time by accidental negligence.

Or, for example, the best-selling cookie in America with chocolate chips, could have been invented and accidentally baked only by the most ignorant housewife in physics. And note that today one of the best-selling types of food in the world, does a person really need to be a pathological loser to invent something like this and earn millions?)

Sometimes it even seems that scientists do not really come up with anything purposefully, their business is either to make mistakes, or blindly copy technologies from nature, or, in extreme cases, miraculously make uncontrolled random discoveries.

Of course, such "brilliant discoveries" and scientific progress, despite all the existing scientific errors, sometimes baffle even the most devoted person to science. Now even we, not learned people, see that very often all of our modern science is just a huge collection of various errors of science, accidents, stupid and unproven theories, or simply mindlessly copied and stolenn oh the nature of ideas.

How, then, to rely on previously sacred scientific knowledge. And okay, there is radiocarbon analysis incomprehensible to anyone, physics, mathematics, space, time, let's say it is relatively difficult. But modern science, even an ordinary person and his capabilities, and even then cannot normally investigate.

Yes, even the person himself, respectively, and the scientist, is very little studied by science, and what is studied usually adds to the list of all the new mistakes of modern scientists, and our next article, about unstudied intellectual ones, will be about this. Well, on our portal of Education and Self-Development you can find articles, and much more.