Many scientific inventions have emerged from mistakes and moments of distraction, much like Archimedes’ principle and numerous groundbreaking discoveries throughout human history that occurred purely by chance. Accidents and coincidences are commonplace, and the scientific community is grateful for them, as illustrated in the following examples:
Penicillin
 |
Image: Nobelprize |
In 1928, Alexander Fleming was working in his laboratory when a piece of mold floated down and landed on a petri dish containing a stubborn bacterium known as staphylococcus. Without his keen observation, Fleming might have discarded the contaminated dish, but he noticed that bacteria were not growing near the mold. Through experiments, he discovered that the Penicillium notatum mold could kill various other bacteria without causing severe side effects in rabbits, mice, and humans. By 1939, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain at the University of Oxford isolated the active substance from the mold, naming it penicillin. This marked the first antibiotic for humans, capable of combating numerous bacterial infections and saving millions of lives.
Nylon
Scientist Wallace Hume Carothers from Dupont observed that certain polymers could form a strong and elastic fiber. One day, his colleagues accidentally disrupted the laboratory; one of them ran out holding a glass rod, with a piece of molten polyester trailing behind. Carothers was amazed by the flexibility and tensile strength of the polyester before it tore. However, the melting polyester was too easy to damage for fabric production, prompting Dupont scientists to experiment with polyamide, leading to the creation of nylon.
Sticky Notes
In the early 1970s, Spencer Silver at 3M discovered a type of adhesive with very weak sticking properties, which he initially dismissed as useless.
 |
Image: Glass-resource |
Years later, Silver’s colleague Art Fry complained during a church service that his bookmarks kept falling out. He thought of the “useless” adhesive, which could stick without damaging the pages. This led to the creation of sticky notes, which were warmly welcomed by office workers.
Safety Glass
Safety glass was discovered at a time when it was most needed: the dawn of the automobile age. In 1903, French chemist Edouard Benedictus accidentally dropped a glass flask in his laboratory. The flask shattered, but the inner glass layer remained intact despite cracking into small pieces. This was due to a thin layer of plastic that had accidentally formed after a liquid containing adhesive evaporated. He mixed a layer of cellulose nitrate between two pieces of glass to create laminated glass. This invention was applied to manufacture windshields for cars in the 1920s.
Artificial Sweeteners
During studies on toluene derivatives in 1789, a student named Fahlberg tasted a chemical that had splashed on his hand and… discovered artificial sugar. Two other artificial sweeteners were also found by chance. In 1937, Michael Sxeda, a student at the University of Illinois, lit a cigarette and… tasted sweetness. He investigated further and identified it as cyclamates. The artificial sweetener NutraSweet emerged from research on stomach pain medications in 1965.
Ngọc Phúc
