If thebig bang theoryis correct — the scientific postulate , not the TV show — then the universe of discourse and all life as we know it is one big happy accident . Ditto for evolution and instinctive pick . You could even argue that every man , woman and child on Earth is the resultant role of the well-chosen chance event of their parent group meeting and fall in love . Kind of a stretching , if you ask us . For our list of story ’s well-chosen accidents , we chose 10 unintentional discoveries that changed the world for the good – whether it was discoveringbeerorpopsiclesor Viagra .
So before you beat yourself up for making mistake , read how our list of stalwart scientists , explorers and nomadic goatherd turned possible fail into discoveries of a lifetime .
10: Penicillin
Beforepenicillin — the worldly concern ’s first mass - produced antibiotic drug — millions of people died each year from infected wounds and contagious bacterial diseases like scarlet febrility . In World War II , bottles of penicillin saved countless lives in battlefield hospitals . Today , we still rely heavily on antibiotics to treat everything from common ear infections to potentially deadly bacterial outbreaks . Yes , mankind owes a enormous debt to Dr. Alexander Fleming and his marvelous misapprehension .
Mistake ? Absolutely . Scottish - expect Dr. Fleming was in his research lab in 1928 researching the flu virus when he noticed that one of his bacteria cultures was taint with a fungus . Most scientist would have tossed the spoiled petri dish in the trash , but not Fleming . Six years originally , he had find the mild antibiotic property of human tear when one of his own incidentally dripped into a bacterial sample [ source : Krok ] . Even mistakes , Fleming con , had scientific note value .
Upon closer inspection , Fleming notice a clean anchor ring around the fungus , indicating that it was toxic to the staphylococcusbacteriain the sweetheart . Fleming carefully keep apart the mould , which was of the genusPenicillium , and nominate his new wonder drug penicillin . The rest period , as they say , is fungus chronicle . Alexander Fleming was grant the Nobel Prize in physiology or medication in 1945 [ source : Nobelprize.org ] .
9: Stainless Steel
For century , rustwas the enceinte enemy of everything made out of steel , from massive ship to humble household cutlery . By all rights , Harry Brearley should have been a hero when he accidentally discovered stainless steel in 1913 . Instead , his forgetful - sighted employer dismissed his innovation as a colossal waste material of time .
Born into poorness , Brearley began apprenticing at the steel mill of Thomas Firth & Sons in Sheffield , England when he was 12 . By his early 30s , he was an expert in industrial chemistry and a lead investigator in his employer ’s laboratory [ source : Portland Works ] . In 1912 , his assignment was to break a sword alloy — a custom blend of iron and other metal — that could defy the superheated friction inside a rifle barrel . ( The friction caused the gunman gun barrel to get too big for the bullet.)The foeman here was erosion , notcorrosion , but sometimes you come up exactly what you are n’t depend for .
As he experimented , Brearley discover that one of his chuck out alloys was still shiny and bright , while the remainder had rusted . Searching his government note , he found the precise convention forstainlessor " rustless " steel – 12 percent Cr form a protective layer on steel when endanger to oxygen [ root : Cyran and Gaylord ] .
Brearley begged his bosses to invent cutter using the providential young admixture , but they disallow the idea as unprofitable [ source : Portland kit and boodle ] . A German firm beat Brearley to the patent of invention , but he was finally agnise as the original — if inadvertent — inventor of the most important metal of the twentieth C .
8: Dead Sea Scrolls
A stray stooge direct to the fortuity discovery of one of the most crucial literary finds in history .
In 1947 , two Bedouin sheepherder were go after their flock through the scorched hills of Qumran near the Dead Sea when one mankind wandered off to dog down a stray . He hear — and nearly fell into — a deep cave in the hillside . Dropping a pit into the blackness , he heard a pot shatter . Returning with his companion , they cautiously lowered themselves into the cave and recover several sealed the Great Compromiser stool containing worn rolling of Cyperus papyrus [ origin : Dead Sea Scrolls ] .
Not know what they had feel , the men betray the sear scrolls to antiquity dealers in Jerusalem for a few dollars apiece . Eventually , a biblical scholarly person and historiographer from the Hebrew University recognized the text on the ringlet as early written matter of book from the Hebrew Bible .
When archaeologist and Bedouin explorers returned to the Qumran region , they give away 10 more cave containing hundreds of full scrolls and fragments known collectively as theDead Sea Scrolls . The scrolls , compose in Hebrew , Aramaic and Greek , include the soonest - known copy of every book of account in the Hebrew Bible – some 1,000 yr old than other known work . Other scrolls contained previously unknown book of account and religious manuscript that drop unexampled lighting on religious beliefs in the Second Temple Period [ source : Dead Sea Scrolls ] .
The scrolls had been placed in the caves more than 2,000 years ago by a separatist Jewish group called the Essenes who lived and worshipped near the Dead Sea [ source : White ] .
7: Viagra
Until medical scientific discipline forge a tab that makes men bright , more attractive and lousy robust , Viagrawill remain human ’s little juicy best admirer . Released to gush reviews in 1998 , Viagra is still a huge cash cow for drugmaker Pfizer , which reported more than $ 2 billion in sale in 2012 alone [ source : Thomas ] .
unbelievably , Pfizer never set out to cureerectile dysfunction(ED ) . The design of Viagra was a miraculous accident . Pfizer researchers were testing mountain of a Modern angina pectoris ( pectus painful sensation ) medicament phone UK-92480when subjects began cover some strange , er , stiffness . Further examination revealed that UK-92480 subdue the production of an enzyme that subvert erections [ author : British Pregnancy Advisory Service ] . Renamed Viagra , the revolutionary ED anovulant became the fastest - betray drug of all time and made a good deal of men a whole stack happier [ source : Jay ] .
6: Velcro
In 1984 , every tyke in America had a pair of Reeboks with three sweet Velcro fastening instead of lame laces . But decades beforeVelcrokicks became a full - blown furore , Swiss engineerGeorge de Mestraltook a uncaused walk with his blackguard in the foothills of the Alps . Returning home , de Mestral noticed that his dog ’s fur was covered in prickly burrs .
Naturally curious , de Mestral examine the burrs under a microscope to see how nature draw off this viscous trick . The culprits were tiny hooks on the surface of the burrs that attach to loops of pelt on the andiron ’s coating . De Mestral was an electrical engineer by trade , not a way designer , but he spent the next eight year researching and developing a habiliment fastener base on his inadvertent breakthrough [ source : Suddath ] .
De Mestral ’s first hook - and - loop prototype was made from cotton , then nylon . He named his mathematical product Velcro — a compounding of " velvet " and " crocheting " — and debuted the invention at a New York fashion show in 1959 [ reservoir : Cyran and Gaylord ] . The fashion industry disregard Velcro until the high-pitched - tech fastener catch the attending of NASA engineer . adhesive agent - backed strips of Velcro were perfect for securing tools and toothbrushes in zero soberness . Shoemaker Puma was the first to put Velcro on sneakers in 1968 , and you may find it on a plethora of objects today [ source : Cyran and Gaylord ] .
5: Popsicles
The conception of aPopsicle — a frozen , sugary treat on a reefer — seems so uncomplicated that a child could have invented it . In fact , that ’s precisely what happened . Back in the wintertime of 1905 , 11 - twelvemonth - old Frank Epperson leave a glass of yield - flavored powdery soda mix in with piddle out on his porch overnight with a rousing stick in it . The next morning , out popped the world ’s first Popsicle .
Epperson did n’t start selling his inadvertent invention until 18 years later when he prepared hisfrozen treatfor a reliever ’s Lucille Ball in his hometown of San Francisco . The crowd do it it , and Epperson give up his twenty-four hours job as a real estate of the realm agent to patent of invention and sell his world - illustrious Epsicles [ source : Cyran and Gaylord ] . Yes , that was the original name , until his small fry — who always called them " pop ’s ' sicles " — win over him to exchange it [ source : Popsicle ] . Good workplace , tike .
4: X-ray Images
Over the course of one unforesightful twelvemonth at the turn of the twentieth century , one humankind ’s accidental discover revolutionized the practice of medicine .
In 1895,Wilhelm Conrad Roentgenwas a little - known German physicist researching the behavior of cathode rays . In those 24-hour interval , no one knew anything about electrons or radiation . Roentgen was running in high spirits - voltage current through emptiness vacuum tube to analyze the escaping cathode rays . He was surprised to find , though , when he cover the underground with black composition board , that some invisible rays were still capable to illuminate a screen surface with platinobarium 9 feet ( 2.7 meter ) away [ source : American Physical Society ] . He call the obscure phenomenon " decade - rays . "
In short time , Roentgen discovered that X - rays could also be captured on photographic plates . Using his married woman ’s hand as a test subject — what a gentleman ! — he was ball over by the lead persona . ecstasy - rays pass easily through peel and brawniness , but were jam by bone and metallic element . For the first time , we could see inside the human consistence without leaven a scalpel .
The aesculapian community leaped on the design , which Roentgen munificently decline to patent . Within a class , the first diagnosing of broken bones and eat up coins were being made by X - re [ source : APS ] . Soon the mysterious ray were being used to process cancerous tumors and skin disease . The dangerous effects of X - ray photograph were n’t known ab initio , but now Doctor of the Church and technicians take limited precaution to obviate the side gist of radiation therapy [ root : British Library ] . Roentgen received the very firstNobel Prizein physics in 1901 .
3: The Rolling Stones
living - saving aesculapian breakthrough and quick-frozen desserts are n’t the only accidental discoveries that have made the worldly concern a happier place . How about the Rolling Stones ? Rock historian claim that the cosmos would never have enjoyed chart - top hits like " ( I Ca n’t Get No ) Satisfaction , " " Brown Sugar " or " Honky Tonk Woman " ifMick Jaggerand Keith Richards had n’t show up for the same train at Dartford Station in Kent on the morning of Oct. 17 , 1961 [ source : BBC ] .
On his style to art college , Richards , electric guitar case over his berm , struck up a conversation on platform two with Jagger ( on his way to the London School of Economics ) about the blues records Jagger was carrying . Richards recognized him as they ’d attended the same main school , and they talk about music all through the one - hour commute into London . The link was so potent that Jagger invited I. A. Richards to join his band , Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys [ source : BBC ] .
Jagger and Richards go on to form the Rolling Stones — originally the Rollin ' Stones — with Brian Jones and Ian Stewart in 1962 , less than a twelvemonth after that fateful group meeting . Their instant friendship became one of the most fruitful songwriting partnerships in rock-and-roll chronicle .
Today , Rolling Stones sports fan still make pilgrimage to Dartford Station ’s political platform two and in 2013 , council leaders announced that a memorial tablet would be installed there to record the group meeting [ source : BBC ] .
2: Pompeii
About 2.5 million people jaw theruins of Pompeii , Italy , each year , fascinated by the life of a first 100 people so similar to our own . excavator have uncovered streets , domicile , public bath and elaborate frescoes as well as jewellery and household objects from this metropolis bury by a vent , which preserved everything so well . But the entire web site was bring out by accident – twice .
Back in 79,Mount Vesuviuserupted , covering the city of Pompeii in ash and kill thousands of people [ source : Stewart ] . During the 1590s , an Italian architect nominate Domenico Fontana was in commission of build a canal to divert H2O from the Sarno River to a count ’s Doroteo Arango . His workers found some dedication relating todecurio pompeis , which Fontana took to refer to the popish oecumenical Pompey rather than the urban center and so cover it up and hold on on going [ source : Ozgenel ] .
In 1710 , a peasant came across some marble pieces while digging a well and sold them to a prince . The prince ordered excavations in the area for more artifacts . In 1738 , the nearby townspeople of Herculaneum – also a victim of Mount Vesuvius – was excavated by workers on behalf of King Charles III who had heard about the prince ’s pad . But the rock and roll above Herculaneum was knockout , which made excavation hard . In 1748 , project leader Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre learned that artifact had also been found near the Sarno duct and lead off digging in what we now know was ancient Pompeii . This city was buried at a shallow level than Herculaneum , which made excavation much easy [ sources : Ozgenel , Turismo Pompeii ] .
Today , tourists visit both sites to see the priceless ruins and artifacts .
1: Beer
The ancient uncovering of fermenting was almost sure a happy fortuity – perhaps one of the happy of all . No one cognize who on the button contrive the first beer . Humans first began domesticating wild grains around 10,000 old age ago in Mesopotamia [ beginning : Food Timeline ] . The firstbreadswere unleavened , meaning they were flat and tough . When grain gets crocked , it becomes food for naturally occur yeasts in the air , which farm inebriant as a by-product .
At some stop , ancient bakers must have noticed that this fermented grain rose into fluffier loaf of bread . A few adventurous / crazy sept also settle to take a sip of the shitty foam in the grain bin . Andbeerwas have !
Some anthropologists andarchaeologistseven theorize that beer — not bread — was the original reason that human race took up Department of Agriculture [ source : Kahn ] . The social lubrication of small - proof alcohol may have softened the unbending social structures of ancient tribes and boost collaborationism and innovation . Bread , some argue , was just a commodious by-product of the pursuit to make tasty beer .
Lots More Information
Some of the tastiest food and drinkable breakthrough absolutely had to be accidents . vino and beer are great examples . Who was the first guy wire — and it had to be a guy — to see a rotten pile of fruit soaking in day - honest-to-god water and opine , " I ’m going to drink in that ! " Who was the first person to discover that if you countenance olive — uneatable when freshly picked — cure in a salt brine for a few months , they ’re delicious ? likely the guy who ascertain some sure-enough olives a saltwater - soaked travelling bag and though , " Why not ? " Eating raw huitre had to embark on as a daring . And have you ever see coffee or drinking chocolate beans in the wild ? How in the world did anyone think that those super bitter piddling noodle could be convert into two of the world ’s most in demand confection ? I know there must have been some happy — and raft of infelicitous — accidents along the way .
