SERENDIPITY: WHAT IT IS AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The serendipity is the valuable discovery that occurs accidentally or casually. One of the most famous examples of this phenomenon is the discovery of penicillin, made by Fleming accidentally; yes, for it to happen he had to experiment for hundreds of hours.

Serendipity has been so important that it has changed the lives of hundreds of people and influenced important discoveries. They are fortuitous cases or accidents, in which after an apparently insignificant error or finding, spectacular advances are achieved in medicine or industrial development.

In this article we have collected 12 cases of serendipity that have changed the world, although there are many more examples.

Examples of serendipity

1- Archimedes Principle

Hieron (? - 476 BC), monarch of Syracuse, gave a silversmith quantities of gold and silver to carve a crown for him. After this, the king doubted the honesty of the craftsman when distributing the items and commissioned Archimedes to find a way to verify whether his order was a fraud or not.

The famous mathematician and physicist came across a problem for which he could not find a solution. Fortunately, while taking a bath one day, he noticed that when he put his body in the bathtub, part of the water overflowed, being the exact amount of the weight that his body occupied.

To the famous cry of eureka !, Archimedes found a solution to verify that the monarch had been scammed.

2- Discovery of America

Perhaps the most important case of serendipity in history. On October 12, 1492 and at the cry of ¡Tierra! By the sailor Rodrigo de Triana, the three Spanish caravels led by Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World.

Taking into account that at that time the land was thought to be flat, the crew surely thanked God that their boats did not fall into a vacuum and that they finally reached the Indies.

Indeed, to the East Indians. Columbus set out in search of silk and spices, exotic riches in Europe and of which there was evidence thanks to Marco Polo.

The shipping agent of unknown origin convinced the Catholic Monarchs that it was possible to reach the Indies by circling the land, without having to follow the traditional routes and saving time, money and the obstacles typical of the time such as pirates. Columbus was not wrong, but neither did he ever imagine what wonders he was going to find along the way.

3- Color blindness

At the end of the 18th century, the young but talented chemist and naturalist John Dalton surprised everyone with his work Extraordinary facts related to the vision of colors (1794), in which he described with a scientific basis the problems of color perception in some persons.

The legend of how Dalton discovered this deficiency varies according to research and accounts. Some claim that he realized his inability by not obtaining the desired results when he mixed the tubes in his laboratory in Eaglesfield, his hometown.

Others, however, suggest that the British scientist got a good reprimand from his mother when he gave him blue stockings, which turned out to be purple, a color closely linked at the time to women who practiced prostitution.

John Dalton passed away without the recognition of his work around vision and colors. Despite this, the scientific community retracted and considered his discovery, calling it color blindness in his honor.

4- Discovery of penicillin

Fleming in his laboratory.

Along with the voyage of Columbus, possibly the most important "accidental" discovery of humanity. The achievement is attributed to Dr. Alexander Fleming, who worked in the field of microbiology or pharmacology, his work being recognized with the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945.

In 1928, during one of his investigations that stopped, he noticed that in one of the plates with which he had been working and that he forgot to remove, a bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus had been cultured. Next to her, a fungus that paralyzed the growth of the bacteria thanks to a substance that caused its death.

This fungus, of the penicillium species, possibly came from one of the nearby laboratories, where they worked to combat certain allergies.

In any case, thanks to the oblivion of the Scottish scientist, today the quality of life of the human species has been improved and many more medical specialties have been created.

5- Coca cola

The origin of the most famous drink in history was not to refresh our throats and make us feel the spark of life.

In 1886, John S. Pemberton, a pharmacist who worked in Atlanta (United States), devised a syrup that would combat digestion problems and also provide extra energy.

Soon, the drink became popular and its use was not limited only to digestive problems. Frank Robinson, an accountant at Pemberton, registered the trademark under the name Coca-Cola, also founding The Coca-Cola Company.

6- Super glue

Better known as Super Glue, its discovery is due to research carried out by Harry Coover.

The inventor and chemist was working on the manufacture of an optically transparent plastic to make sunglasses that would serve for the sights of rifles.

The problem was that the cyanoacrylate, which was the substance with which he worked, had incredibly sticky properties and stuck to everything it touched. Coover understood that its true utility was to be used as glue. And that's how he marketed Super Glue in 1958.

7- Discovery of viagra

The best-selling drug in the world is used as a drug against sexual impotence in men. However, the original function that was being worked on at the time was quite different.

Pfizer, a biomedical company, was working on a drug to relax blood vessels to fight angina pectoris, one of the most common heart problems. The results were never satisfactory and all they got was a very peculiar side effect.

Apparently all the volunteers who underwent the tests developed erections, which led to the development of the first oral drug to solve the problems of sexual dysfunction among men. Currently, sales of viagra exceed 1 billion dollars worldwide.

8- Post-it

In this case, if you were looking for a super-inherent element. Dr. Spencer Silver worked hard on it, but its usefulness did not come to fruition as it did not have enough power. He fell into a mixed bag, until Art Fry, another employee of the company where Spencer worked, found him a utility.

A devotee of the Prebisterian Church, Fry sang in the choir and was in the habit of marking the psalms of the canticles with scraps of paper. To his desperation, these quickly fell off, being an inconvenience.

In a lucid moment, Fry recalled his partner's invention, deducing that this "temporary permanent adhesive" was the solution to his problem. 3M, the company where Fry and Silver worked, patented and commercialized the well-known Post-it in 1980.

9- French fries

George Crum was a renowned chef from New York who had his little Chinese in his shoe due to a regular customer's dissatisfaction with French fries.

One summer in 1853, the customer again showed his disagreement with the cut of the potatoes, since they considered that they were too thick and pasty.

Crum, jaded by the diner's critical comments, decided to cut the potatoes as thin as a piece of paper and fry them until they were crisp.

Disdainfully, he served them to the customer in response to their complaints. To his surprise, it turned out that this culinary invention was enchanted and soon the restaurant had to add them to the menu as a regular dish.

10- Discovery of LSD

LSD is a psychedelic drug that had many repercussions among young people during the 60s and 70s and that, to this day, is still a highly valued product on the black market for narcotics.

His discovery stems from a "curious feeling" that the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman had in 1943. Years earlier, Hoffman managed to synthesize this compound, which he hoped would be a beneficial drug for the circulatory and respiratory systems. The only result that was achieved was to make the animals with whom he treated became extraordinarily restless.

However, Hoffman returned to the research in the aforementioned 1943 and, while resynthesizing LSD, he experienced a feeling of dizziness that forced him to leave his laboratory. At home, he experienced non-unpleasant hallucinogenic sensations in which he saw fantastic images or shapes, kaleidoscopes and very intense colors.

Surprised, after three days, he decided to ingest a much larger amount to test the effects of LSD. After this, he returned home by bicycle, where his condition worsened and he was forced to attend a medical consultation thinking that he had lost his mind.

In the following short you will be able to understand a little how the famous "Bicycle Day" developed:

11- Microwave oven

In 1946, Dr. Percy Spencer was investigating with a radar called Magnetron, with which he intended to remotely locate war machines such as tanks.

One day, while working on the project, Spencer decided to stop for something to eat to recharge. She had a chocolate bar in her pants, but she could never enjoy it because it was totally melted.

Spencer began to suspect that the blame for this would be the radar, so he experimented with leaving an egg and some popcorn next to him. After a while, the egg was smashed and the popcorn exploded.

Spencer saw it more domestic use than war, so that same year they decided to market the first microwave ovens. However, it was a total failure due to the cost and the fact that they were huge for any home.

It wasn't until the 1970s that smaller, more reasonably priced models were finally developed. Today they are one of the best-selling home appliances in the world.

12- Kellogg's Cereals

The famous Corn Flakes of this well-known cereal brand were patented in 1894, but their origin dates back to previous years.

Some Adventists, interested in obtaining foods to include in a vegetarian diet, experimented with grains such as wheat, rice, barley, wheat or corn. At the fore was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's, director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which applied strict diets to his patients.

These foods were bland and antiaphrodisiac, since Adventists promote the limitation of sexual relations.

In one of the wheat cooking processes, Dr. Kellogg had to abandon the task and let the wheat sit longer than it should. The result was that it had been overcooked, but the doctor and his brother decided to roll it into small flakes.

Due to their financial limitations, they were served in the sanatorium and to everyone's surprise they liked it very much. Cereals were soon patented and marketed under the Kellogg's company.

13- Saccharin

Up to three sweeteners were discovered by chance due to scientists not remembering to wash their hands: cyclomate (1937), aspartame (1965) and the famous saccharin (1879).

Constantine Fahlberg, a student at Johns Hopkings University, was having lunch one day when he noticed a sweet taste in his soup and in the bread that had been served to him. Indignant, he made it known to the cook, who did not perceive that supposed sweet taste.

Surprised, Fahlberg noticed that the same flavor was in the palm of his hand, so he deduced that perhaps the cook had not committed any irregularity when preparing the soup.

He returned to the laboratory where he worked, discovering that the unknown substance that gave that characteristic flavor had adhered to him in the course of the investigation that he was conducting before lunch.

Discovered the properties of this substance, the student patented it in 1884 under the name saccharin, marketing it as a substitute for cane sugar.

Other inventions or discoveries resulting from a serendipity

• Pacemaker
• Plastic
• Dynamite
• Fireworks
• Quinine
• Cognac
• Radioactivity
• gin tonic
• Rubber
• X rays
• Clay
• Fluorescent

References

1. Doval, G (2011). Coincidences, Coincidences and Serendipities of history. Nowtilus ISBN 9788499671833
2. ROBERTS, Royston M. (1992) Serendipity. Madrid: Alliance.