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New comments are only accepted for 3 days from the date of publication. Subscriber Only. Article 16 loses power as UK negotiating tool as EU hardens approach. Haggling over Mica compensation reaches critical and fraught stage. How counting murders of women changed the law in Italy. Science Columns. Grade inflation: lowering standards in higher education It is denied as a serious problem but could cause reputational damage. Topsy-turvy maths: Proving axioms from theorems The starting point for reverse maths is a base theory that is strong enough to state the theorems of interest, but not strong enough to prove them.
Tackling our high anxiety over climate change Further global warming will cause more trouble, but there is much we can still do. Latest Ireland. More than 6, children tested positive for Covid in first week of November Later it became clear that this virus was also responsible for the human morbidity and mortality occurring. This discovery was critical to directing the epidemiological investigations and preventative and control programs across the United States as the virus spread rapidly and unchecked across the country, affecting more than species of wildlife.
In this example, the search image of the physicians and human health investigators was too limited for them to make the diagnosis on their own. Only through collaboration and utilization of the paradigm shift between human and veterinary pathology was recognition of the true nature of the problem possible. It was serendipitous that a crow died and was taken to the Wildlife Conservation Society. It was also serendipitous that the zoo pathologist connected the link between bird deaths in and around the zoo and the human disease being reported in a small scale throughout her city.
The persistence to develop the necessary collaborations and teamwork to answer the question of the relationship between the two outbreaks went far beyond serendipity and is a good example of professional dedication. In addition, underlying everything was a basic curiosity that allowed Dr. The trait that I value most in my graduate students, colleagues, and collaborators, and even my other personal friends, is a healthy and vigorous intellectual curiosity. This characteristic is roughly translated into the ability to question what is known and to explore what is thought to be unknowable.
The willingness to expend neuronal effort on questions that may or may not have any immediate relevance to one's income illustrates the difference between a technically proficient investigator and a creative and stimulating scientist.
The truly great scientists seem to maintain this basic curiosity throughout their lives and to avoid the intellectual sloth that can, and too commonly does, accompany acclaim. The prominent scientist and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke can perhaps be described as serendipitous by virtue of his many years of residence in Sri Lanka.
Restated, the advancement of scientific knowledge is fed by the deep familiarity of studied experts, but it is driven forward in bursts by the curiosity of the minds who can allow themselves the luxury of wandering beyond the known possibilities Kuhn The diversity of the observations of the three princes of Serendip in their wandering adventures is a good indication that they were extremely curious.
Although not recorded in the fairy tales, it seems likely that the princes observed many things that were not directly related to their extrication from particular misadventures. It is also consistent with the narrated details to infer that they applied sagacity to questions that arose from the observations. Accordingly, it is crucial to the advancement of science to reward and encourage intellectual curiosity and individuals' willingness to explore and re-explore questions with no known practical application.
Serendipity demands curiosity. Indeed, the future of science would be at risk of losing its vigor if we fail to embrace the following, valuable aspects of the scientific method:.
Respect for the intellectual victory that occurs each time a serendipitous discovery is made is a critical component of scientific discovery. It must be recognized that serendipitous discoveries are at the very least equal to the value of discoveries made through carefully planned incremental experimentation. Block L. Publications of Lawrence Block. Campbell WC. Serendipity in research involving laboratory animals. ILAR J 46 : — Google Scholar. Clarke AC. Kant I.
New York : St. Martin's Press. Heinlein R. Stranger in a Strange Land. New York : G. Putnam's Sons. Glashow SL. Immanuel Kant versus the Princes of Serendip: Does science evolve through blind chance or intelligent design? Google Preview. Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Murrell TR.
Masters Thesis. Columbus : The Ohio State University. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Sign In or Create an Account. Sign In. Advanced Search. Search Menu. Article Navigation. Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation. Volume Hofmann, August Wilhelm von. Vol 1. Vol 4. Garrison FH. An Introduction to the History of Medicine. Saunders Company; Shorter E. A History of Psychiatry. Lehmann HE. Pharmacotherapy of Tension and Anxiety. Thomas Publisher; — Balme RH. Early medicinal use of bromides. J Roy Coll Physicians.
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Burger A. In , the physicist and inventor Percy LeBaron Spencer — was working for the Raytheon corporation. He was conducting research using magnetrons, which were needed in the radar equipment used in World War Two.
A magnetron is a device that contains moving electrons under the influence of a magnetic field. The moving electrons cause microwaves to be produced. Percy Spencer was involved in testing the output of magnetrons. One very significant day he had a chocolate candy bar in his pocket while working with a magnetron in his lab.
Although most versions of the story say that the candy was made of chocolate, Spencer's grandson says that it was actually a peanut cluster bar. Spencer discovered that the candy bar melted while he worked. He wondered if emissions from the magnetron were responsible for this change, so he placed some uncooked popcorn kernels next to the magnetron and watched as they popped.
His next experiment involved placing an uncooked egg near the magnetron. The egg heated up, cooked, and exploded. Spencer then created the first microwave oven by sending the microwave energy from a magnetron into a metal box that contained food. The microwaves were reflected by the metal walls of the box, entered the food and were converted to heat, cooking the food much faster than a conventional oven. Further refinements created the microwave ovens that so many of us use today.
There are many more examples of serendipity in science. Some researchers estimate that up to fifty percent of scientific discoveries are serendipitous. Others think that the percentage might be even higher. It can be exciting when a researcher realizes that what at first seemed like an error may actually be an advantage. There may be great practical benefits to the discovery that is made. Some of our most important advances in science have been serendipitous.
It's very likely that in the future there will be more important discoveries and inventions due to serendipity. Hi Linda, thanks for posting this informative article on the role of serendipity in scientific research. Serendipity certainly played an important role in my own career--for example, as a doctoral student interested in Developmental Biology, I noticed that a fruit fly Drosophila DNA sequence cross-hybridized with DNA sequences from animals as diverse as snakes and mice.
It turned out that this was because all of the similar sequences contained similar simple repetitive DNA sequences. This led me to investigate the origins of simple repetitive sequences which are extremely widespread in nature, and to the discovery of the fundamental mechanism for DNA sequence expansion which we called slipped-strand mispairing--also known as replication slippage.
Hi, Bede. Thanks for the comment and for sharing the information about Harry Brearley. I definitely agree that hard work can increase luck! Thanks for this enjoyable article. I had an uncle who was considered to be lucky by many people. Such was the case with Harry Brearley, who discovered stainless steel. A really interesting hub. Voted up. Congratulations on your discovery, Kris! It must have been a great feeling. I agree, forgetting to wash your hands after working with chemicals is very strange.
Thank you for the comment! Very interesting hub. A significant number of important scientific discoveries are by "accident". I've had a few myself in the lab and I'll always remember the one that was controversial at first but ended up being significant in it's field after publication. It's a fun feeling to stumble upon something you never thought possible:. The one that always gets me is the artificial sweetener one you mentioned - it's famous and it kind of creeps me out.
Thanks for the comment, Alastar. It's an interesting idea. The idea of another dimension which can communicate with us is also a very interesting topic! I certainly have an open mind with respect to that thought. Thank you very much for the comment and the share, phdast7!! I appreciate your visit very much. Yes, serendipity and science do sound like strange partners to many people! Their relationship is an interesting topic.
This was a very interesting and informative article on science and serendipity Alicia. Do many of these discoverers by whatever means "tune in" to another dimension or plane where the answers to their discoveries are made? Wonderful Hub! I offer a History of Science course on the college level and it is always interesting to watch students grapple with, what to them seem like incompatible truths, the fact that science is rigorous and mathematical, and that chance, unplanned and random choices.
I love this sentence: "When serendipity occurs, it means that by chance a researcher has created a suitable combination of conditions to get an unusual, often interesting and sometimes very important result from his or her investigation. Thank you for the comment, GoodLady. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know you and your hubs, too! Serendipity and science.
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