Whoops! The 10 Greatest (Accidental) Inventions of All Time

Hmmph. And why did they leave ferrocene off the list? _{They left ferrocene off the list!}

They left many things off of the list; Fullerenes, X-ray scattering, etc. Pesonally, I'd be surprised if at least half of the discoveries humanity has made was actually by people who were great observers and not by planned design.

Point well taken, but I'm not even sure about "great observers". Like with the cyanoacrylate bit. It was a nuisance because it kept making a mess [damn it, this stuff just makes a mess and once it sticks to something, you cant get it off! Damn, I guess we'll have to try something else].

Six years later:

[damn it, this stuff just makes a mess and once it sticks to something, you cant get it off! Damn, I guess we'll have to try something else. Er, no wait...].

Not that I would have done any better. It's easy to get so focused, so concentrated that I fail to observe the obvious. I guess that's why they have beer!

It is said that Werner Heisenberg formulated his Uncertainty Principle while meditating on the bubbles in his beer glass, and wrote it down on a bar napkin.

Funny - I have always been told that the microwave cooking effect was noticed by the guys at Goonhilly who were forever picking up cooked pigeons et al underneath their microwave transmitters. I think they started putting their lunches up there...

I believe I saw a reference, albiet anecdotally, in Neil Gaiman's "Cryptonomicon" (It may have been a different book, can't recall for certain) that early radar crews in WWII would warm their hands in the radar transmitters, don't know if that is a factual occurence but it does seem that it might predate Goonhilly Cooking 101. Either/anyway lets hope not too many people had permanent damage from unshielded units...

-T

No mention of post-it notes - but that would involve including a woman in the story (other than as a guinea pig) since it was the secretary who realised their use.

Talking of women, I thought Marie Curie discovered X-rays - or was it that she identified X-rays as part of the radioactive decay of radium?

There was no serendipity reported in the invention of bakelite, so why was it included?

A potentially amusing article spoilt by fundamental errors.

I suggest that the item with the greatest impact on civilization, that is missing from the list, is the vulcanization of rubber.

Chris

The accidental discovery that had the greatest impact on human civilization is probably the fermentation of a grain/ water mixture to make beer. Beer provided the first source of safe drinking water that could be stored for long periods. This allowed the development of cities, since a large number of people could live in close proximity without rampant waterbourne diseases. Divisions of labor developed to grow the grain, prepare it for fermentation, make the beer, construct containers, transport the beer... the beginnings of industry and trade.

great invention.. but not accidental in what I read. All of the 'firsts' that started in Sumeria were given by the ancient gods. While some think that it was accidental, the oldest reference to its source is an old sumerian "Hymn to the goddess Ninkasi", the alcohol goddess. (daughter of Enki)

Chris

Actually, if you want to get right down to it, the greatest invention of all time, the one that made everything else possible, was fire. And whether it was discovered by Og after a lightning storm or given by the Titan Prometheus or by Jahweh, without fire we would still be living in caves.

"Actually, if you want to get right down to it"

never underestimate my willingness to be pedantic. . Fire is not something that can be invented. It can only be discovered. (as a useful element, and not to be feared) What can be invented are methods of controlling fire for domestic use. (starting, sustaining, and extinguishing)

cheers

Chris

Interesting argument. It can be reasonably argued that nothing can be invented, but only discovered. It's a matter of semantics. Never-the-less, fire is the sin qua non, without which nothing else is possible.