Some of the greatest discoveries in science have been completely accidental. Then again, maybe science had a little help...
Ice Candy
One of America's favorite summertime treats came about thanks to a particularly cold night in the San Francisco Bay area in 1905. That's when 11-year-old Frank Epperson forgot a glass containing powdered soda mix, water and a wooden stick out at the doorway overnight. The next morning, Frank discovered the mixture had frozen around the stick. He popped it out of the cup, licked it…and summers were never the same!
Safety Glass
In 1903, French chemist Édouard Bénédictus accidentally dropped a glass bottle. To his surprise, the glass cracked but wasn't broken into pieces. Out of curiosity, he checked it carefully. As it turned out, the bottle hadn't been cleaned properly and was coated with a thin film of a kind of liquid plastic. A happy accident led to the discovery of safety glass.
YInMn Blue
In 2009, Mas Subramanian, a professor of materials science at Oregon State University, was testing out new materials for electronics in his lab with graduate students. A mixture of metal s went into the furnace. What came out was a striking blue mixture. The first new blue since cobalt (深蓝) was discovered in 1802, is called "YInMn Blue."
Penicillin
In 1928, Scottish researcher Alexander Fleming returned to his lab after a two-week vacation only to discover that mold (霉菌) from an open window had made an uncovered dish of bacteria dirty. Strangely enough, the mold stopped the bacteria from growing, giving the world its first antibiotic.
