Accidental Discoveries

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

13 stories

• The Teenager Who Tried to Make Malaria Medicine and Accidentally Invented Purple
• The Teenagers Who Found a 20,000-Year-Old Art Gallery
• The Oil-Well Gunk Drillers Hated That Became Vaseline
• The Pigeon Mess That Turned Out to Be the Echo of the Big Bang
• 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 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 Melted Candy Bar That Invented the Microwave
• The Moldy Petri Dish That Almost Got Thrown Away
• The Buried Army Found by Farmers Digging a Well
• The Cylinder That Weighed Too Much and Became Teflon

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