#accidental discovery

Stories tagged “accidental discovery” in the Weird Science History archive — 18 stories connected by this topic.

• The Doorstop That Fell From Space — and Spent 30 Years Holding Open a Shed Door
• The Head Cold That Showed Alexander Fleming Your Tears Kill Germs — and the Lab Staff Paid Threepence to Cry
• The Overheated Glass Plate That Bounced Off the Floor — and Became CorningWare
• The Hot Soldering Iron That Bumped a Syringe of Ink — and Invented the Inkjet Printer
• The Unwashed Flask That Fell 11 Feet and Became Your Windshield
• The Nuclear Watchdog Satellites That Caught the Universe Exploding Instead
• The Glue Rejected for Being Too Sticky — That Later Hoisted a TV Host Into the Air
• The Sweetener Discovered Because a Student Heard 'Test' as 'Taste'
• 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 Oil-Well Gunk Drillers Hated That Became Vaseline
• The Chemist Who Forgot to Wash His Hands and Discovered Saccharin
• The Cylinder That Weighed Too Much and Became Teflon
• The Glow Across the Room That Let Us See Inside the Body
• 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 Teenager Who Tried to Make Malaria Medicine and Accidentally Invented Purple

Related topics: #chemistry #artificial sweeteners #history of chemistry #Cold War #FDA #Manhattan Project #Nobel Prize #physics history