- Sometimes you don’t need hard work to change the world — just a lucky accident.
How do world-changing inventions happen? It’s easy to imagine dedicated scientists setting their minds to solve the mysteries of the universe through targeted, conscious effort.
Yet, that’s not how it often happens. Some of human history’s most important inventions were absolute flukes.
Here are just 8 tremendous discoveries that changed the world — that were complete accidents.
8. Penicillin
Let’s start with a famous one. You may know the origin story of penicillin, but if you don’t, here’s how it goes.
The year was 1928 and Alexander Fleming, a Scottish microbiologist, was working with petri dishes filled with the bacteria Staphylococcus. One day, when returning to his lab, he noticed his dishes had grown moldy.
Frustrated, Fleming inspected the dishes to see if he could salvage some of his precious bacteria. He noticed something interesting — only the bacteria that had come into contact with the mold had died.
The mold turned out to be Penicillin notatum and it secreted a substance we now know as penicillin. It did take another 20 years for the drug to hit the market, but Fleming’s poor lab hygiene is what led to its discovery.
7. X-Rays
In 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen was messing around with a cathode ray tube. Suddenly he realized that a nearby fluorescent screen was glowing, even when he covered the tube.
Clearly, there was something coming out of the tube that made the screen shine. He tried blocking the rays with various materials, before eventually sticking his hand in front of it.
Lo and behold, he could see his bones on the fluorescent screen!
Röntgen later replaced the screen with a photographic plate so he could capture the image. It didn’t take long before doctors realized what a small miracle they now had access to.
Sadly, Röntgen wasn’t aware of his discovery’s dangers. He dies in 1923 of colorectal cancer — quite possibly caused by X-ray exposure.
6. Radioactivity
The discovery of radioactivity is tied to that of the X-rays. Curious about Röntgen’s invention, French physicist Henri Becquerel decided to investigate the connection between X-rays and phosphorescence.
He wanted to charge uranium salts with the sun’s “X-ray energy” and expose photographic plates to them. But, on the day of his experiment, it was cloudy. No sun, no X-ray energy.
Becquerel decided to develop his photos anyway. To his surprise, he saw signs of radiation on the plates.
So where had the mysterious rays come from? Becquerel theorized they originated from the uranium salts — and he was right.
5. Anesthesia
Doctors have been dulling surgery patients’ pain with booze for ages, but it doesn’t really work all that well. In 1844, dentist Horace Wells wasn’t out to find an alternative, though — he was attending a fun fair.
In those days, laughing gas — or nitrous oxide — was a popular party toy. But this time, Wells’ friend who was high on the stuff, happened to receive a nasty cut.
Only, the man had no idea it had happened.
Wells got the idea that maybe laughing gas could be used to remove the pain of dental operations. And so, he invented modern anesthesia.
4. The Microwave
The year is 1945 and engineer Percy Spencer is working at his job at the Raytheon Corporation, developing radar technology. He was testing a new vacuum tube when he realized that the chocolate bar in his pocket had completely melted.
Spencer wondered if there was something about the vacuum tube that caused it. He began aiming the tube at eggs and corn kernels to see what would happen.
Well, if you’ve put eggs or popcorn in the microwave, you know how his experiments went.
Two years later, Raytheon released the first commercial microwave oven. It didn’t look like your microwave, though — this behemoth was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 750 pounds.
3. Brandy
Brandy might not be the most important invention in the world. But the discovery of the popular alcoholic beverage is a fun one.
Back in the 16th century, Dutch merchants started distilling wine for two purposes. One, it made the wine last longer, and two, they had to pay fewer taxes since wine was taxed by volume.
They stored the distilled wine in wooden casks with the idea that they’d dilute it back to wine strength upon sale. Only, they realized the watered-down distilled wine tasted awful.
But then they tasted the drink without diluting it — and they loved it. That’s how we got brandewijn (“burned wine” in Dutch) which eventually evolved into brandy.
2. LSD
In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman synthesized lysergic acid — a chemical isolated from certain fungi. He continued studying the chemical, believing that it could be used as a pharmaceutical.
Five years later, in 1943, he somehow accidentally swallowed the chemical.
Well, you know what happens if you take LSD. Hoffman experienced the first unintended LSD trip.
Later in the same year, he took LSD again, this time on purpose. He then went on a bicycle ride — and what a ride it was.
Hoffman realized that he had discovered a ridiculously strong psychoactive substance. Although he never described his invention as an accident, that’s what it really was.
1. Viagra
In 1989, the Pfizer medical company was testing a chemical called sildenafil. They thought that may have in their hands a new, earth-shattering medication for heart pain.
Well, their clinical trials showed that the drug didn’t do jack for the test subjects’ hearts. But it sure had an effect a bit farther south.
The men participating in the tests noticed their little fellas were proudly standing at attention after taking the drug — even if they suffered from erectile dysfunction.
If you know Pfizer, they sure won’t let a potential moneymaker slip through their fingers. They developed sildenafil into the little blue pill we know today.
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