Serendipity: changing the world, one accident at a time.

There’s a scene in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Reese, the unintelligent older brother, unknowingly creates an enzyme in his younger brother’s science kit—a task which Malcolm had been slaving away for days at without any results. How did Reese discover this while his genius brother couldn’t? Simply by bouncing his basketball off of the ceiling, causing asbestos to rain down upon the concoction.

Acts of serendipity like this in technology and science aren’t just written by screenwriters; they do indeed happen in real life.

First, let me explain what serendipity actually is. According to Webster, serendipity is “an apparent aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally.” Don't you wish something like that happened more often to all of us? Imagine burning your toast one morning only to find out that your malfunctioning toaster could have been used as an alternate source of energy all along. Or maybe something a little more realistic like forgetting to wash your hands after chemistry lab and realizing that you've just created sweetener by doing so.

The latter actually happened around 1879 with a chemist named Constantin Fahlberg. While searching for new uses for coal tar, Fahlberg accidentally spilled a chemical derivative on his hands. Instead of washing it off immediately, he continued tinkering in his laboratory before merrily going off to dinner, still with chemical-covered hands. While eating, he began to notice that everything he ate had a particular sweet taste to it, soon realizing that it was due to the chemical residue. Fahlberg patented saccharin not long after and it is now used in all sorts of products. So every time you use sweetener in your coffee or decide to have a diet coke, think of how a simple action such as not washing hands led to the creation of something considered so commonplace now.

And who knows? Maybe an accidental course of events will lead one of us to make an amazing and world-changing discovery in the future like it did Fahlberg.

Serendipity, what does it mean?

The word serendipity was used by the first time by Horace Walpole in the 18^th century. The word comes from the Persian story “The three princess of Serendip”, who were always making discoveries by accident. The current definition of the word by the Merria-Webster dictionary is “ the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”

Even though “luck” is the first word that comes to my mind when trying to explain serendipity, there are mainly five key terms needed to really understand its meaning:

-Accident

-Sagacity

-Fate

-Knowledge

-And of course, luck.

So we can say that serendipity is not mere luck. It is actually to take advantage of the opportunities you encounter and have the tools (knowledge) for it. Numerous scientific discoveries are defined as accidents, but that is a miss concept, it is actually the result of serendipity.

Maybe an example can portray what it truly means. There is a popular story that Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree, an apple hit his head, and he suddenly defined the gravitational law. Many people would say that it was luck or an accident that the apple fell exactly when he was sitting there. The truth is, many apples fall daily, but Newton was the only one to associate it with gravity. Indeed it was accident, luck or fate that the apple fell but it was Newton’s sagacity, and knowledge the responsible to put it all together.

Comic by Maria de Lourdes Silva Willson

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pf2JPi6OVg

On Serendipity and Education

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’, but ‘That’s funny …’- Isaac Asimov

          If serendipity were defined as stumbling upon one thing while researching another, would it not make sense that the act of serendipity relies on luck and chance alone? Contrary to this seemingly correct statement, one important aspect gets in the way: education. 


          One of the most famous examples of serendipity is Louis Pasteur and his accidental discovery of penicillin. He left a petri dish of staphylococcus, not to be confused with streptococcus that causes strep throat, uncovered and when a mold invaded and killed the bacteria, he discovered the antibiotic we all know today. Though, what if you had seen the petri dish? Would you have looked closely enough and been able to identify just what happened, or would you have groaned and thrown the petri dish away and started again? Pasteur’s education enabled him to look at his apparent failure and gleam something from it. This idea of serendipity and education is not new. Shakespeare himself stated in Henry V, “all things are ready of our minds be so.” What is a mind if it is not educated? 


          Serendipity may be paraphrased as a fortunate accident, but serendipity is picky and only exercises its power on people whose minds can handle and understand something new. Serendipity is the very act of finding something you never knew you were looking for, which is scarily similar to the idea of scientific research.

For more information on serendipitous discoveries, check out this article on Business Pundit, a blog dedicated to entrepreneurs and businesses.

What is Serendipity?

"Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for."

--Lawrence Block

 

        What is serendipity? The word was coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole in the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip. The heroes in the story "were always making discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things they were not in quest for." According to dictionary.com, serendipity is an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; good fortune or luck. The word "serendipity" is found in English dictionaries today, but only those edited after 1974.

     

       One of the more recent examples of serendipitous discovery in the medical world is the discovery of Viagra. It was originally tested as UK92480, a new treatment for angina which is a heart condition that constricts the vessels that supply the heart with blood.

 

     Although the drug did not help with angina, it did produce an unusual side effect-- lots of erections. The trial were successful and after further tests and developmnt, Viagra was released as a prescription drug that changed the lives of many men who had been struggling with erectile dysfuntion.

 

     "What was amazing about this study was that we saw a restoration of the erectile response. Now we were on to something which could only be described as special," BBC News quoted Pfizer senior scientist Chris Wayman.

 

     Whether we realize it or not, serendipity affects our everyday lives. If you have ever used rubber, Velcro, Post- it notes, Vaseline, or even Viagra, you have taken advantage of serendipitous discovery.

Blog post #1: Serendipity

Hi everyone! Let’s talk about the interesting and "FASCINATING" world of Serendipity.

The first day when we started talking about Serendipity I thought that it was something related with a Physic experiment or something like that but... nuuuup! What is Serendipity though??

Serendipity is when you find something that you weren't expected to find... Have you ever feel that you did something better than what you were trying to do?

Actually for me it happens to many times when I'm playing my sport, tennis.

It happens sometimes when I’m trying to make a “normal” shot (I say normal because I am not trying to win the point in that shot), and then I realize that the shot that I hit is better than the one I was expecting!

This can sound like: ok Eddie is not a good tennis player because he doesn’t even know what he wants to do with the ball, but, my thinking is: ok Eddie is an amazing tennis player because he surprises his opponents with shots that he doesn´t even know that he can make. J

Serendipity can be present in too many areas, here I explain how it works in sports, but actually the area where Serendipity is really important is in the area of experiments, how many things do we have now that were invented by the process of Serendipity? The discovery of America or the invention of Penicillin could be examples of Serendipity because they were found “accidentally” when the goal was something different.

Said that, if we want to find, or invent something, let Serendipity to do its job, probably it can surprise us and surprise the world!!