Most scientific discoveries occur as a result of painstaking, purposeful and insanely complex work, the goal of which boils down to one single task - to make a breakthrough in one area or another. However, history is full of cases when incredible discoveries were made by scientists when their gaze was directed completely in the opposite direction.
Sometimes very significant discoveries happen in completely random ways. Take, for example, the development of a drug with the aim of improving blood flow in the myocardium and treating angina pectoris and coronary heart disease. For the heart, this medicine, as shown by clinical trials, turned out to be practically useless, but this is how sildenafil, now better known as Viagra, was born. The discovery of the same saccharin - an artificial substitute for sugar - was the result of fatigue, or perhaps a simple forgetfulness of a Russian chemistry professor to wash his hands before eating.
In most cases, the researchers behind such discoveries would not call them truly "random", since before that people often spent many sleepless nights and analyzed a huge mountain of scientific information - all in order to actually make a discovery, although not what happened in the end.
The desire to understand how this or that new product works also often makes its contribution, as was the case with the inventor of a special substance intended to clean the walls from soot. Just a simple curiosity and a desire to change one ingredient for another have been embodied in a very interesting and very profitable invention - plasticine.
It should also be understood that none of the “random” inventions that changed this world would be possible without the presence of someone who could timely discern the potential and value of the discovery. Yet history shows that the best innovations can come to this world at the most unexpected moment.
Microwave
Raytheon's radar engineer Percy Spencer made one of the world's most important discoveries in 1945. He discovered that microwave radiation can heat objects. There are several legends about how he found this out. According to one of them, one day he accidentally left a chocolate bar in his pocket and started working with the magnetron, and a few minutes later he was surprised to feel how the chocolate in his pocket began to melt. Trying to figure out what was wrong, Spencer decided to experiment with other foods: eggs and corn kernels. From what he saw, he concluded that the cause of what was observed was microwave radiation.
Promotional video:
However, in 1946 Spencer received a patent for the first microwave oven. The first Radarange microwave was produced in 1947 by the same company he worked for. But it was not intended for heating food, but for quickly defrosting food and was used exclusively by the military. Its height was 168 centimeters, its weight was 340 kg, and its power was 3 kW, which is approximately twice the power of modern household microwave ovens. A microwave for the military cost $ 3,000. In 1965, her household version was released, which sold for $ 500.
Quinine
For a long time, quinine has been used as the main treatment for malaria. Nowadays it can still be found as one of the components of anti-malaria drugs, as well as an additive in various tonic drinks.
Jesuit missionaries have been using quinine since the early 1600s, having discovered it in South America and subsequently brought it to Europe, however, according to one of the legends, the use of this substance for the treatment of diseases was practiced by representatives of the Andean civilizations even earlier, and the discovery of quinine, and in particular its properties, are often associated with a chance of luck.
One of the legends tells about an Andean inhabitant who got lost in the jungle and contracted malaria fever. Completely exhausted from thirst, he drank from a puddle of water at the foot of the cinchona tree. The bitter taste of the water frightened the person very much at first. He thought he had drunk something that would further aggravate his condition. But, fortunately, everything happened quite the opposite. After a while, his fever subsided, the man was able to find his way home and share the story of an amazing tree.
This story is not as well documented as the same official version of the missionary Bernab Kobo, who brought the quinine received from the Indians to Europe and healed the wife of the Viceroy of Peru with it, but we simply could not ignore the interesting legend of luck that subsequently changed this world. …
X-ray radiation
In 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen worked with a cathode ray tube. Despite the fact that the tube itself was shielded, Roentgen noticed that the cardboard covered with platinum-blue barium and located next to the tube began to glow in a dark room.
Roentgen tried to block the rays, but most of the things he placed in front of them showed a similar effect. When he finally put his hand in front of the receiver, he noticed that it was beginning to show through on the image projected on the screen. He called his discovery "X-rays". Then Roentgen replaced the tube with a photographic plate and obtained the first X-ray.
Soon thereafter, the technology was adopted by medical institutions and research laboratories. However, the danger of prolonged exposure to X-rays, scientists had yet to understand.
Radioactivity
Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 by the French physicist A. Becquerel. He was investigating the relationship between luminescence and the recently discovered X-rays.
Becquerel decided to find out if any luminescence is accompanied by X-rays? To test his guess, he took several compounds, including one of the uranium salts, phosphorescent with a yellow-green light. After shining sunlight on it, he wrapped the salt in black paper and put it in a dark cabinet on a photographic plate, also wrapped in black paper. After a while, having developed the plate, Becquerel actually saw an image of a lump of salt. But the luminescent radiation could not pass through the black paper, and only X-rays could illuminate the plate under these conditions.
After conducting several similar experiments using uranium salt, he realized that new rays were discovered that pass through opaque objects, but are not X-rays.
Becquerel found that the radiation intensity is determined only by the amount of uranium and does not depend at all on what compounds it enters into. Thus, this property was inherent not in compounds, but in the chemical element - uranium.
Velcro fasteners
In 1941, the Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral decided to take a walk in the Alps with his dog. Upon returning home, he, as usual, began to clean the animal's fur from the heads of the burdock. But this time I decided to see how they look under a microscope. As it turned out, there were tiny hooks on each head, with the help of which they clung to the animal's fur and clothing.
The engineer did not plan to come up with a new system of fasteners, but after seeing how simple and strong hooks cling to fabric and wool, he still could not resist the temptation. Through years of trial and error, he realized that the most suitable material for making velcro was nylon.
Velcro fasteners became very popular shortly after the technology was adopted by the NASA aerospace agency. Later, Velcro became widely used in the production of casual clothing and footwear.
Saccharin
Saccharin is an artificial sweetener about 400 times sweeter than sugar. It was discovered in 1878 by the Russian-born German chemist Konstantin Fahlberg at Johns Hopkins University. Fahlberg and his leader, American professor Ira Remsen, conducted research on bitumen derivatives (coal tar).
After a long day in the laboratory, Falberg forgot to wash his hands before dinner. Taking the bread in his hand and biting off a piece, the scientist noticed that it had a sweetish taste, like all the rest of the food that he touched with his hands.
He returned to the laboratory and experimented with mixing different constituents until he eventually discovered that combining ortho-sulfobenzoic acid with phosphorus chloride and ammonia produced a substance with that sweet taste. (It should be noted that the practice of tasting random chemicals not at all typical for scientists).
Fahlberg patented the chemical formula of saccharin in 1884 (without registering Remsen in the patent holder, despite the fact that together they had previously published the first scientific article on this discovery). The artificial sweetener became widespread during the First World War, when supplies and supplies of sugar in the world were limited.
Tests of the substance have shown that it is not absorbed by the body and is not high in calories. In 1907, saccharin was adopted as a sugar substitute by diabetics as a sugar-free diabetic sweetener.
Implantable pacemaker
In 1956, American engineer and inventor Wilson Greatbatch was developing a device that records heart rate. Pulling into the box for the resistor that was supposed to complete the circuit, he took out the wrong one - the resistor turned out to be larger.
However, by installing this resistor, the engineer found that the circuit emits electrical ripple. The pulse rate gave him the idea of a heart rate. Greatbatch wanted to create a compact implantable pacemaker. All that remained was to figure out a way to reduce the size of the stimulator so that it could work.
Two years later, he introduced the first implantable pacemaker that delivers artificial pulses to stimulate the heart. The device was implanted in a dog. This patented innovation led to the start of production and further development of pacemakers.
LSD
SD-25 was first synthesized by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1938, who was conducting research on lysergic acid produced by the poisonous ergot fungus that parasitizes some cereals. Hoffman is planning to use the studied chemicals in pharmaceuticals. And by the way, many of their derivatives are still used in it.
In 1943, not yet knowing about the effect of the drug obtained, Hoffman accidentally absorbed a certain amount of the substance with his fingertips, feeling a pronounced effect of anxiety and dizziness, which he reported to his assistant.
Returning home, he lay down on the bed and "plunged into a peculiar state of intoxication, characterized by a very active play of the imagination," as he himself wrote in his notes. Three days later, Hoffman decided to be the first in the world to deliberately take the drug. Here's how he described his feelings after:
“I asked my laboratory assistant, who was informed about the experiment, to walk me home. We went by bike as there was no car due to wartime restrictions. On the way home, my condition began to take on threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision trembled and distorted, as if in a distorted mirror. I also had the feeling that we cannot budge. However, my assistant told me later that we were going very fast. Finally, we arrived home safe and sound, and I was barely able to ask my companion to call our family doctor and ask the neighbors for milk. The dizziness and the feeling that I was losing consciousness had by this time become so strong that I could no longer stand, and I had to lie down on the sofa. The world around me has now changed even more terribly. Everything in the room revolved, and familiar objects and pieces of furniture took on a grotesque menacing form. All of them were in constant motion, as if possessed by inner anxiety. The woman near the door, whom I hardly recognized, brought me milk - during the evening I drank two liters. It was no longer Frau R., but rather a wicked and cunning witch in a painted mask.
Even worse than these demonic transformations of the external world, there was a change in how I perceived myself, my inner being. Any effort of my will, any attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the external world and the dissolution of my "I" seemed in vain. Some demon possessed me, took over my body, mind and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank down and helplessly lay down on the sofa. The substance with which I wanted to experiment won me over. It was a demon who contemptuously triumphed over my will."
Plasticine
The question of who is considered the inventor of plasticine is controversial. In Germany, they are considered Franz Kolb (patent of 1880), in Great Britain - William Harbut (patent of 1899). There is another version of the creation of plasticine, according to which this substance was invented by Noah McVicker.
The sticky material was created by Noah McViker, who was then working with his brother Cleo at the soap company Kutol. However, the material McVicker originally made was not intended to be a toy. It was developed as a wallpaper cleaner. One of the problems that the fireplace holders used to heat their homes was the soot that settled on the walls and spoiled the wallpaper. The sticky clay promised a hassle-free cleanup. However, vinyl wallpaper that could be washed with a simple sponge soaked in water soon came into vogue, and cleaning clay became irrelevant. As the McVeekers were about to go out of business, they got a new idea, suggested by a kindergarten teacher named Kay Zufall, who noticed that the material changes shape perfectly and can be used for sculpting. Through mutual close relatives, she communicated this idea to Noah McVicker. He, in turn, decided to remove the detergent component from the material and added a dye to it. The original name of the new material "Kutol's Rainbow Modeling Compound" was decided to be replaced by the version of "plasticine" proposed by Kay.
Penicillin “When I woke up at dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly did not plan to revolutionize medicine with my discovery of the world's first antibiotic or killer bacteria. But I suppose that's what I did."
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming, professor of bacteriology, returning to his laboratory after a month of rest with his family, found that mold fungi appeared in one of his Petri dishes, which destroyed the colonies of staphylococci that had previously been in it, but did not touch others. culture. Fleming attributed the mushrooms that grew on the plate with his cultures to the genus Penicillus and a few months later called the isolated substance penicillin. But since Fleming was not a chemist, he was unable to extract and purify the active substance. The scientist wrote about his discovery in 1929 in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology, but little attention was paid to his article. Until 1940, Fleming continued his experiments, trying to develop a method for the rapid release of penicillin,which could be used in the future for a larger application. Penicillin was first used to treat humans by British scientists Howard Flory and Ernst Cheyne on February 2, 1941, marking the beginning of the antibiotic era.
Viagra Viagra was the first drug to treat erectile dysfunction, but it was not originally developed for that. Its creator is the American company Pfizer, which developed the drug sildenafil, which was intended to treat the heart.
However, during clinical trials, it was found that the effect of the drug on cardiac blood flow is minimal, however, it has a pronounced effect on blood flow in the pelvic organs, accompanied by a longer and stronger erection in men. Even in those cases when people already did not remember when they last had it. This is how Viagra appeared. Additional clinical trials of Pfizer in 4,000 men with erectile dysfunction have shown similar results.
Insulin The discovery that later led to the invention of insulin was pure coincidence.
In 1889, two doctors from the University of Strasbourg, Oscar Minkowski and Joseph von Mehring, while trying to understand how the pancreas affects digestion, removed this organ from a healthy dog. A few days later, they discovered that flies were gathering around the urine of the experimental dog, which turned out to be a complete surprise. They analyzed this urine and found sugar in it. Scientists realized that its presence was due to the removed pancreas several days earlier, which led to the fact that the dog developed diabetes. However, these two scientists never found out that hormones produced by the pancreas regulate blood sugar. This was found by researchers from the University of Toronto, who, in experiments conducted from 1920 to 1922, were able to isolate a hormone that was later called insulin. For this revolutionary discovery, scientists from the University of Toronto were awarded the Nobel Prize, and the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company, with one of the owners of which one of the scientists knew, began the first industrial production of this substance.
Vulcanized rubber The inventor of the vulcanization method is considered to be the American Charles Goodyear, who, since 1830, tried to create a material that could remain elastic and durable in heat and cold.
He treated rubber resin with acid, boiled it in magnesia, added various substances, but all his products turned into a sticky mass on the very first hot day. The discovery came to the inventor by accident. In 1839, while working at the Massachusetts Rubber Factory, he once dropped a lump of rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove. Contrary to expectations, it did not melt, but, on the contrary, charred like leather. In his first patent, he proposed exposing rubber to copper nitrite and aqua regia. Subsequently, the inventor discovered that rubber becomes immune to temperature effects when sulfur and lead are added. After numerous tests, Goodyear found the optimal vulcanization mode: he mixed rubber, sulfur and lead powder and heated this mixture to a certain temperature, resulting in rubber,which did not change its properties either under the influence of sunlight or under the influence of cold.
Cornflakes The history of cornflakes dates back to the 19th century. The owners of the Battle Creek Sanatorium in Michigan (USA), Dr. Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg were preparing a meal of cornmeal, but they urgently needed to leave for urgent boarding business.
When they returned, they found that the cornmeal, which was on strict account, had deteriorated slightly. But they still decided to make a dough out of flour, but the dough curled up and got flakes and lumps. In desperation, the brothers fried these flakes, and it turned out that some of them became airy, and some acquired a pleasant crunchy texture. Subsequently, these cereals were offered to Dr. Kellogg's patients as a new dish, and served with milk and marshmallows, they were very popular. By adding sugar to the flakes, Will Keith Kellogg made the flakes more palatable to a wider audience. In 1894, the original cornflakes were patented by the American physician John Harvey Kellogg. In 1906, the Kelloggs began mass production of a new type of food and founded their own company.
TeflonThe chemist Roy Plunkett is to thank for the invention of Teflon. In 1938 he worked in one of the DuPont laboratories in New Jersey. At that time, Plunkett studied the properties of freons.
Once he froze tetrafluoroethylene under strong pressure, as a result of which a waxy white powder was obtained, which later demonstrated amazing properties. Curious, Plunkett conducted several experiments with the new substance and found that the powder was not only heat-resistant, but also had low frictional properties. Two years later, the release of a new material was already established, and the world recognized it under the name "Teflon".
Superglue When the American chemist Harry Coover created what would later be called "superglue" in 1942, he was actually experimenting with new scopes in military weapons. However, the substance was rejected due to excessive stickiness.
In 1951, American researchers, while searching for a heat-resistant coating for fighter cockpits, accidentally discovered the property of cyanoacrylate to firmly adhere various surfaces. In 1955, the development was patented, and went on sale in 1959. Superglue has long been present in various American talk shows, where its more and more amazing properties were revealed. Cyanoacrylate glue could adhere to any surface, even if it had not been properly sanded. The main problem with this glue is not to firmly glue the parts, but to separate them later.
Impact resistant glassSafety glass is widely used in the automotive and construction industries. Today it is everywhere, but when the French scientist Edouard Benedictus accidentally dropped an empty glass flask on the floor in 1903 and it did not break, he was very surprised.
As it turned out, before that, the collodion solution was stored in the flask, the solution evaporated, but the walls of the vessel remained covered with a thin layer of it. At that time, the automotive industry was developing intensively in France, and the windshield was made of ordinary glass, which caused many injuries to drivers, which Benedictus drew attention to. He saw real life-saving benefits in using his invention in automobiles, but automakers found it too expensive to manufacture. Nowadays it is used everywhere.
Petrolatum
The name "petroleum jelly" was patented in the United States as a trademark and trademark in 1878. The well-known cosmetic and therapeutic agent was invented and patented by the English chemist Robert Chesbrough who emigrated to America. The oilmen "helped" the scientist with this invention.
When the oil boom began in 1859, Chezbro, communicating with oilmen, became interested in a sticky oil product - a paraffin-like mass that, during oil production, adhered to drilling rigs and clogged pumps. He noticed that workers consistently use this mass for burns and cuts as a successful wound healing agent.
The scientist began experimenting with the mass and was able to isolate useful ingredients from it. With the resulting substance, he smeared his numerous burns and scars received during the experiments.
The effect was amazing. The wounds healed, and rather quickly. In the future, Cesbro continued to improve the amazing wound-healing ability of this substance and, trying on himself, watched the result.
Nikolay Khizhnyak
