Accidental Discoveries

The melted candy bar, the moldy petri dish, the pigeon mess that turned out to be the echo of the Big Bang.

22 stories

• The Ulcer Experiment That Splashed Out of Its Flask and Became Diet Soda
• The Wrong Resistor That Grabbed a Heartbeat Out of Thin Air
• The Teenager Who Tried to Make Malaria Medicine and Accidentally Invented Purple
• The Teenagers Who Found a 20,000-Year-Old Art Gallery
• The Runaway Goat That Led to the Dead Sea Scrolls
• The Schoolboy Whose Hot Ice Cream Froze Faster — and Baffled Physicists for 60 Years
• The Seaweed Ash That Ate Its Own Vats — and Gave Up a New Element
• The Oil-Well Gunk Drillers Hated That Became Vaseline
• The Pigeon Mess That Turned Out to Be the Echo of the Big Bang
• The Planet That Was Officially Named 'George' for 67 Years
• The Lost Hammer That Led to 14,865 Roman Coins — and Got Its Own Museum Number
• The Melted Candy Bar That Invented the Microwave
• The Moldy Petri Dish That Almost Got Thrown Away
• The Farmer Who Drove Through a Blizzard With a Dead Cow and a Milk Can of Blood
• The Fish Extinct for 66 Million Years That Rode to the Museum in a Taxi
• The Glow Across the Room That Let Us See Inside the Body
• The Rocket Scientist Whose Leaky Fridge Idea Became the Super Soaker
• The Hot Stove Accident That Invented Modern Rubber
• The Cylinder That Weighed Too Much and Became Teflon
• The Failed Heart Pill That Trial Volunteers Wouldn't Give Back
• The Basement Wall That Opened Onto a City for 20,000 People
• The Buried Army Found by Farmers Digging a Well

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