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serendipity  is a propensity for making fortuitous discoveries while looking for something unrelated.

the word has been voted as one of the ten english words that were hardest to translate.

 

 

the word derives from a fairy tale called the three princes of serendip, where serendip is the arabic name for sri lanka. the word was coined by horace walpole in 1754 in a letter he wrote to a friend.

"it was once when i read a silly fairy tale called ‘the three princes of serendip’. as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of; for instance, one of them discovered that a camel blind of the right eye had traveled the same road lately because the grass was eaten only on the left side, now do you understand serendipity? “

 

 

one aspect of walpole's original definition of serendipity that is often missed in modern discussions of the word is the "sagacity" of being able to link together apparently innocuous facts to come to a valuable conclusion. thus, while some scientists and inventors are reluctant about reporting accidental discoveries, others openly admit its role; in fact serendipity is a major component of scientific discoveries and inventions. according to m.k. stoskopf  "it should be recognized that serendipitous discoveries are of significant value in the advancement of science and often present the foundation for important intellectual leaps of understanding".

the amount of benefit contributed by serendipitous discoveries varies extensively among the several scientific disciplines. pharmacology and chemistry are probably the fields where serendipity is more common. it is also famously common in exploration and less studied; in the arts.

 

 

 

 

most authors who have studied scientific serendipity agree that a prepared and open mind is required on the part of the scientist or inventor to detect the importance of information revealed accidentally. this is the reason why most of the related accidental discoveries occur in the field of specialization of the scientist. about this, albert hofmann, the swiss chemist who discovered lsd properties by unintentionally ingesting it at his lab, wrote

 

“ it is true that my discovery of lsd was a chance discovery, but it was the outcome of planned experiments and these experiments took place in the framework of systematic pharmaceutical, chemical research. it could better be described as serendipity. “

 

the french scientist louis pasteur also famously said: "in the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. " this is often rendered as "chance favors the prepared mind." william shakespeare expressed the same sentiment 250 years earlier in act 4 of his play henry v: "all things are ready if our minds be so."

 

 

 

 

some examples

 

isaac newton's famed apple falling from a tree, supposedly leading to his musings about the nature of gravitation.

 

christopher columbus was looking for a new way to india in 1492 and wound up landing in the americas. native americans were therefore called indians.

 

penicillin by alexander fleming. he failed to disinfect cultures of bacteria when leaving for his vacations, only to find them contaminated with penicillium molds, which killed the bacteria. however, he had previously done extensive research into antibacterial substances.

 

the psychedelic effects of lsd by albert hofmann. a chemist, he unintentionally absorbed a small amount of it upon investigating its properties, and had the first acid trip in history, while cycling to his home in switzerland; this is commemorated among lsd users annually as ‘bicycle day’.

 

 

 

teflon, by roy j. plunkett, who was trying to develop a new gas for refrigeration and got a slick substance instead, which was used first for lubrication of machine parts

cellophane, a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose, was developed in 1908 by swiss chemist jacques brandenberger, as a material for covering stain-proof tablecloth

rayon, the first synthetic silk was discovered by french chemist hilaire de chardonnet, assistant to louis pasteur. he spilled a bottle of collodion and found later that he could draw thin strands from the evaporated viscous liquid.

viagra (sildenafil citrate), an anti-impotence drug. it was initially studied for use in hypertension and angina pectoris. phase i clinical trials under the direction of ian osterloh suggested that the drug had little effect on angina, but that it could induce marked and significant penile erections.

bioelectricity, by luigi galvani. whilst dissecting a frog at a table where he had been conducting experiments with static electricity his assistant touched an exposed sciatic nerve of the frog with a metal scalpel which had picked up a charge, provoking a muscle contraction.

x rays, by wilhelm roentgen. interested in investigating cathodic ray tubes, he noted that some fluorescent papers in his lab were illuminated at a distance although his apparatus had an opaque cover

pluto's moon charon was discovered by us astronomer james christy in 1978. he was going to discard what he thought was a defective photographic plate of pluto, when his star scan machine broke down. while it was being repaired he had time to study the plate again and discovered others in the archives with the same "defect" (a bulge in the planet's image which was actually a large moon).

corn flakes were accidentally discovered by the kellogg brothers in 1898, when they left cooked wheat unattended for a day and tried to roll the mass, obtaining a flaky material instead of a sheet.