3 Important Accidental Discoveries

Though this does not happen very often, but such events are the stuff of fairy tales.

Written by: Mudabbir Ahmad

Updated: May 8, 2015, 8:36 AM IST

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Science is based on careful and diligent practices of thought as well as practice. Inventions and discoveries are a result of tedious processes that may go on for many years. However, there are often instances when an invention or discovery has been made based absolutely on chance. Though this does not happen very often, but such events are the stuff of fairy tales. Here are 3 instances when chance led to inventions and discoveries-

1. Potato chips Chef George Crum, in 1853, tried to spite a customer who complained that his fries were cut too thick, so the chef sliced a potato paper-thin and fried it to a crisp. The food became a rage and these days it is everyone’s favorite!

2. Viagra In MerthyrTydfil, a Welsh hamlet, trials were being held in 1992 for a new angina drug. The men who underwent the trials complained of a serious ‘side-effect’, and Viagra was invented. Previously, the town was known for producing a different kind of iron.

3. LSD  Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann took the world’s first acid hit in 1943, when he touched a smidge of lysergic acid diethylamide, a chemical he had researched for inducing childbirth. He tripped, of course, and then half of the world did!