What Are Some Accidental Discoveries In Science?

• Penicillin. One of the biggest medicinal breakthroughs in history came about entirely by accident. …
• Viagra. …
• Plastic. …
• The Microwave. …
• Vaseline. …
• Strikeable Match. …
• Gunpowder. …
• Mauve.

What are 10 accidental inventions?

• Cornflakes, 1894. Will and John Kellogg, Seventh-day Adventists, experimented with producing vegetarian food in 1894. …
• Cellophane, 1900. …
• Penicillin, 1928. …
• Antabuse, or disulfiram, 1937. …
• Teflon, 1938. …
• Slinky, 1943. …
• Microwave oven, 1945. …
• WD-40, 1953.

What is the most famous accident in the history of science?

The most famous criticality accident in history occurred at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where Cecil Kelly was exposed to a deadly dose of neutrons and gamma rays when

a large platinum tank went critical

.

How many scientific discoveries are accidental?

Psychologist Kevin Dunbar and colleagues estimate that

between 30% and 50% of all scientific discoveries

are accidental in some sense (see examples below).

Was Bakelite an accident?

Although earlier plastics had relied on organic material, the first fully synthetic plastic was invented in 1907 when

Leo Hendrik Baekeland accidentally created Bakelite

. … The new thermosetting plastic was used for everything from phones to jewelry to clocks.

How was Coca cola accidentally invented?

As a chemical enthusiast, Pemberton tried several opium-free alternative painkillers and experimented with coca and cola wines until he stumbled on a recipe which contained extracts of cola nut and damiana with a never-known-before taste. … He called his accidental product “

Pemberton’s French Wine Coca

”.

What inventions were made by mistake?

• The slinky. Inventor: Richard Jones, a naval engineer. …
• Penicillin. Inventor: Sir Alexander Fleming, a scientist. …
• Chocolate-chip cookies. …
• Potato chips. …
• The Pacemaker. …
• Silly Putty. …
• Microwave ovens. …
• Saccharin (an artificial sweetener)

What was discovered by chance?

Major everyday discoveries that were helped by luck in some way include products like

vulcanized rubber

, teflon, nylon, penicillin, cyanoacrylate (Super Glue), the implantable pacemaker, the microwave oven, Scotchgard, Saran wrap, Silly Putty, Slinky, safety glass, propeller, snowmaking, stainless steel, Perkin’s mauve …

What are some examples of happy accidents?

• Insulin.
• X-rays.
• Radioactivity.
• Penicillin.
• The Deinonychus dinosaur.
• LSD.
• Superglue.
• The pacemaker.

How was plastic accidentally discovered?

In 1846, Charles Schonbein, a Swiss chemist, accidentally discovered

another polymer when he spilled a nitric acid-sulfuric acid mixture on some cotton

. A chemical reaction occurred in which the hydroxyl groups of the cellulose fibers in the cotton were converted to nitrate groups catalyzed by the sulfur.

Is plastic an invention?

Was WIFI an accident?

Wi-Fi Was Invented By Accident

! An Australian scientist by the name of John O’Sullivan was inspired by Stephen Hawking’s theory of evaporating black holes and their subsequent radio waves.

What polymers were discovered by accident?

• A Goodyear for rubber. In 1839, self-taught American chemist Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped India rubber mixed with sulphur onto a hot stove. …
• From flames to film reels. …
• Birth of synthetic plastic. …
• The Teflon Don of PTFE.

Who invented Sprite?

Sprite is a colorless, lemon and lime-flavored soft drink created by

The Coca-Cola Company

. It was first developed in West Germany in 1959 as Fanta Klare Zitrone (“Clear Lemon Fanta”) and was introduced in the United States under the current brand name Sprite in 1961 as a competitor to 7 Up.

Was the microwave invented by accident?

As a matter of fact, his name was

Percy Spencer

and his invention was an accident! Spencer worked for a company named Raytheon, developing microwave radar transmitters during World War II. One day in 1945, he noticed that a candy bar he had in his pocket was starting to melt.

What is accidental discovery?

Serendipity is

an unplanned fortunate discovery

. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery.

Was Coke an accidental invention?

The drink we call Coca Cola is invented, by accident,

in a Georgia backyard

. 1886: Trying to come up with a headache cure and general pain reliever, pharmacist John Pemberton invents the beverage that will become known to the world as Coca-Cola in a backyard kettle.

How were matches made by mistake?

In 1826, John Walker, a chemist in Stockton on Tees, discovered through lucky accident that a stick coated with chemicals burst into flame when scraped across his hearth at home. He went on to invent the first friction

match

. … Samuel Jones from London copied his idea and marketed his matches as “Lucifer’s”!

Which inventions were the results of happy accidents?

• Microwave oven. Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock.com. …
• Yogurt. Sea Wave / Shutterstock.com.
• Ice cream cones. Anna-Mari West / Shutterstock.com.
• Popsicles. Tom Wang / Shutterstock.com. …
• Penicillin. Everett Historical / Shutterstock.com. …
• Potato chips. …
• Beer. …
• Artificial sweetener.

What is happy mistake?

A mistake or unplanned event that

results in a beneficial outcome or pleasant surprise

.

Who invented clear plastic?

Who invented paper?

About 2,000 years ago, inventors in China took communication to the next level, crafting cloth sheets to record their drawings and writings. And paper, as we know it today, was born! Paper was first made in Lei-Yang, China by

Ts’ai Lun

, a Chinese court official.

What was invented by accident in 1938?

Teflon

, discovered by Roy J. Plunkett at the DuPont Company’s Jackson Laboratory in 1938, was an accidental invention—unlike most of the other polymer products.

How was Teflon accidentally discovered?

An Accidental Discovery

Dr. Roy J. Plunkett was working with gases related to refrigerants. After checking a frozen, compressed sample of tetrafluoroethylene, he and his associates made an unexpected discovery: The

sample had polymerized spontaneously into a white, waxy solid

to form polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

Who discovered nylon?

The establishment of modern polymer science by

Wallace Carothers

and the first nylon plant, built by DuPont, at Seaford, are two deeply interwoven National Historic Chemical Landmarks.

Who invented celluloid?

Some historians trace the invention of celluloid to

English chemist Alexander Parkes

, who in 1856 was granted the first of several patents on a plastic material that he called Parkesine.

Did a woman create WiFi?

Hedy Lamarr

was an Austrian-American actress and inventor who pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. … Lamarr was originally Hedwig Eva Kiesler, born in Vienna, Austria on November 9

^th

, 1914 into a well-to-do Jewish family.

Who owns WiFi?

As of 2017, the Wi-Fi Alliance includes more than 800 companies. It includes 3Com (now owned by

HPE/Hewlett-Packard Enterprise

), Aironet (now owned by Cisco), Harris Semiconductor (now owned by Intersil), Lucent (now owned by Nokia), Nokia and Symbol Technologies (now owned by Zebra Technologies).

Who made Pepsi?

On August 28, 1898, “Pepsi-Cola” got its name. Beginning in 1893, New Bern

pharmacist Caleb Bradham

developed and began serving a carbonated drink he called “Brad’s Drink.” He served the beverage from the soda fountain in his pharmacy at the corner of Pollock and Middle Streets.

Who invented computer?

English mathematician and inventor

Charles Babbage

is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer. During the mid-1830s Babbage developed plans for the Analytical Engine. Although it was never completed, the Analytical Engine would have had most of the basic elements of the present-day computer.

Who invented the Internet?

Computer scientists Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn

are credited with inventing the Internet communication protocols we use today and the system referred to as the Internet.

Who invented seven up?

7 Up was created by

Charles Leiper Grigg

, who launched his St. Louis–based company The Howdy Corporation in 1920. Grigg came up with the formula for a lemon-lime soft drink in 1929.