A list of 25 inventions and discoveries that were made by accident. The inventions and discoveries include:
- Saccharin (a sugar substitute)
- Smart dust (tiny sensors)
- Potato chips
- Coca-Cola
- Popsicles
- Ice cream cones
- Teflon (non-stick coating)
- Vulcanized rubber
- Plastic
- Radioactivity
- Mauve (the first synthetic dye)
- Pacemaker
- Post-it notes
- Microwave oven
- Slinky
- Play-Doh
- Super glue
- Velcro
- X-rays
- Safety glass
- Corn flakes
- Dynamite
- Anesthesia
- Stainless steel
- Penicillin (the first antibiotic)
These inventions and discoveries were often the result of scientists and researchers stumbling upon unexpected results while working on other projects.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. In 1879, Constantin Fahlberg discovered saccharin.
2. Saccharin was discovered by accident when Fahlberg didn't wash his hands after work and found that his wife's biscuits tasted sweeter.
3. Jamie Link, a graduate student at the University of California, invented smart dust after a silicon chip she was working on accidentally destroyed itself.
4. George Crumb invented potato chips in 1853 when a customer kept sending his French fried potatoes back to the kitchen because they were soggy.
5. Crumb sliced the potatoes extra thin, fried them to a crisp, and drowned them in salt to teach the customer a lesson.
6. The customer liked the potato chips, and they became a hit.
7. John Pemberton originally intended to invent a medication, but it ended up being Coca-Cola.
8. The original Coca-Cola recipe included cocaine.
9. Frank Epperson invented popsicles in 1905 when he left a mixture of powder and water outside on the porch, and it froze.
10. The ice cream cone was invented at the 1904 World's Fair when an ice cream stall ran out of plates and used waffles from a neighboring stall instead.
11. Roy Plunkett invented Teflon in the early 20th century while experimenting with refrigerants.
12. Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber after accidentally spilling rubber, sulfur, and lead onto a stove.
13. Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented plastic in the early 1900s as an alternative to shellac.
14. Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896 when he left uranium in a drawer and found that it had imprinted its image on a photographic plate.
15. William Perkins invented the first synthetic dye, mauve, in 1856 while researching a cure for malaria.
16. John Pemberton originally intended to invent a medication, but it ended up being Coca-Cola.
17. Wilson Greatbatch invented the pacemaker after accidentally inserting the wrong resistor into a device.
18. Spencer Silver invented Post-it Notes in 1968 after developing a low-tack adhesive.
19. Percy Spencer invented the microwave in 1945 after feeling a chocolate bar melt in his pocket.
20. Richard James invented the Slinky during World War II when he was trying to find a way to employ springs aboard Navy ships.
21. Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895 when he was performing an experiment with cathode rays.
22. Edouard Benedictus invented safety glass after accidentally knocking a flask off his desk and finding that it only cracked instead of shattering.
23. Will Keith Kellogg invented Corn Flakes after leaving some bread dough sitting out for several hours.
24. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite after discovering a method of containing nitroglycerin.
25. Crawford Long, William Morton, and Charles Jackson first noticed the anesthetic effects of various drugs such as nitrous oxide or laughing gas.
26. Harry Brearley invented stainless steel in the 20th century while working for arms manufacturers.
27. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after leaving some bacteria in Petri dishes and finding that a mold had grown and inhibited the growth of the bacteria.