In its own way, science is nothing more than search, observation, and perception. And this statement was used in many discoveries. To obtain the desired result, scientists have been working on materials by trial and error for years. But there are inventions that turned out quite by accident. And there are many. Now these are already ordinary things to which we are all accustomed. But here is what these inventions are and how they appeared, we want to tell you today. So, we present 12 discoveries that appeared by chance.
1
Botox
Not many people know that Botox is the strongest neurotoxin. In 1987, Jean and Alastair Carruthers used a small dose of neurotoxin to treat eye diseases. There was no result in the treatment of the disease, but they noticed that the wrinkles around the injected injections miraculously smoothed out. It was a breakthrough in the plastic industry. Since then, millions of people have been using “beauty injections” to look younger. In 2018, the global Botox market reached $ 3 billion.
2
Dynamite
Did you know that the founder of the famous award Alfred Nobel was also the inventor of dynamite? In the 1860s, nitroglycerin was a common form of explosive, but this substance in its original liquid form was very unstable. Any mistake led to an explosion. Many scientists, including young Alfred Nobel, have been looking for ways to make the substance safer.
Once, when transporting a substance, nitroglycerin began to ooze from a bottle on a package of kieselguhr. This is a rock, usually in the form of flour. The impregnated composition interested Nobel. The mixture turned out to be stable and much safer, and the explosion power was almost the same. From that day, dynamite began to be produced on a massive scale.
By the way, there is an interesting article about the greatest scientists of all time who have changed the world with their discoveries on the site most-beauty.ru.
3
Anesthesia
Nobody knows for sure who first invented anesthesia, but many attribute this discovery to Horace Wells in 1844. In those years, it was popular to organize events called "fun parties" or "pranks with the air." There, young people used laughing gas with an ether mixture to have fun. At one of these events, there was a dentist Horace Wells. He noticed that one guy severely injured his leg, but did not feel any pain. Inspired by this observation, Wells took the mixture the next day and removed his bad tooth. Now, no surgery or tooth extraction can be performed without anesthesia.
4
Teflon
For the inventions of teflon, you need to thank the chemist Roy Plunkett, who accidentally received it in 1938. Trying to get a new refrigerant, he pumped gas into a cold cylinder. Then he noticed that some white material had formed on the walls of the cylinder. When interacting with the iron walls, a new substance was formed. The company Plunkett worked for patented a new fluorinated plastic in 1941, calling it Teflon.
This material has wonderful properties. Withstands huge temperature extremes and very slippery. It is this property that prevents sticking to products in Teflon pans. In everyday life, they cover dishes, but are also widely used in other areas, from military to industrial. For example, they cover the walls of oil pipelines to speed up the flow.
5
Super glue
The substance cyanoacrylate, which is better known as superglue, was discovered in 1942. During the Second World War, a group of scientists led by Harry Coover conducted experiments to obtain transparent plastic. Their attempts were not successful, but as a result they received a certain viscous substance called cyanoacrylate. Scientists did not attach importance to it. Only six years later, Harry Coover again accidentally gets it. He noticed that the substance is able to combine almost anything without additional exposure. In 1958, he patented it and began commercial production.
6
Bakelite (Plastic)
Until 1907, shellac or cellulose was used to isolate electrical equipment. Shellac was made from the excrement of Asian beetles. It was expensive stuff. The Belgian chemist Leo Backland began conducting experiments to obtain artificial plastic. Working with formaldehyde and phenol, he obtained interesting material by changing temperature and pressure. He called it Bakelite, which became the first artificial plastic. It was an innovative material that was especially useful in times of scarcity of natural materials. Now the plastic has filled everything. The biggest problem is that this material is practically not processed in nature.
7
Saccharin
In 1878, Konstantin Falberg discovered saccharin, working in the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Once he didn’t wash his hands before dinner and felt a sweet taste after eating. He associated this with one of the substances with which he worked all day. It turned out that he knew this substance well, but had no idea about its sweet taste. After some time, he patented his discovery, calling it saccharin. Sugar substitute quickly gained popularity, especially among diet lovers and patients with diabetes. Now scientists have proved that this substance is absolutely harmless to health.
8
Penicillin
For the discovery of penicillin, three scientists received the Nobel Prize. First, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928 when he was working on an antiviral drug. The scientist noticed that in one of the Petri dishes settled ordinary Penicillium mold, which we can see on the bread, if left for a long time in a warm place. He saw that the circles in the middle were clean. This meant that mold killed bad bacteria. So this drug was first discovered, which saved millions of lives.
Later, Howard Flory and Ernst Chane isolated pure penicillin, which was much more effective. Thus began the era of antibiotics.
9
Pacemaker
A pacemaker is an electrical device that helps regulate heartbeat. It was invented by John Hopps in 1950. He studied hypothermia and tried to make a device that would restore body temperature using the heating effect of radio frequencies. During work, he came up with a great idea to create a device that would work with a weak heartbeat or his cardiac arrest. Since the invention of this device has saved thousands of lives.
10
X-rays
The story of the discovery of x-rays is quite fascinating. In 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen performed his daily routine experiments and noticed a strange glow effect. He saw that the cathode rays, passing through the screen, hit the barium-coated paper, which made it glow. To test the effect, he took a picture of his wife’s hand. Later, he wrote in great detail about the discovery of a new kind of rays, without fully realizing the importance of its discovery for medicine. In 1901, he won the first Nobel Prize in Physics.
Do not miss also on our site most-beauty.ru a fascinating article about the TOP 10 amazing discoveries in the field of genetics.
11
Radioactivity
In 1896, radioactivity was discovered by the German scientist Henri Becquerel during the study of phosphorescent materials. These materials are able to glow in the dark after exposure to a light source. He conducted many experiments using uranium salts. He called invisible radiation Beckerel rays. Then he managed to discover, together with other scientists, the important properties of radioactive materials. He noted that some substances more actively emit radioactivity than others. The discovery resulted in polonium and radium.
12
Microwave
The theory of radio waves was expressed back in 1864. James Maxwell predicted the fantastic properties of radio waves in his famous equations.
After the end of World War II, engineer Percy Spencer worked on a project related to radar. Once he noticed that the chocolate in his pocket melts when he is near the unit. After he put the corn in the machine and got hot popcorn. Of course, then it was not the microwave oven that we are using now. But later, thanks to the observation of Percy Spencer, a revolutionary device was invented.