SERENDIPITY AND CHEMICAL DISCOVERIES

           

              Serendipity is a concept that may seem unimportant, a ‘pleasant surprise’ as some people call it. It’s a happy and unexpected event or discovery that happens by chance when we are not expecting, and most of the times looking for something else. Moments like this in our daily life are very enjoyable, and fun. The fact that we can experience happiness when we are completely not expecting it makes the whole experience even more fun. However, serendipity is not only this common daily happiness that we may have. Serendipity is much more, and these random and pleasant surprises are, and were very important to the world. These unexpected events made the world we live in today and completely changed our lives.

            In the past, knowledge was limited. People didn’t have the millenniums of understanding and discovery we have now, and didn’t have most of the means to do it, means that we have now. This knowledge we have now we have to thank our ancestors for it, because even though we have it now, they were the ones to obtain most of today’s knowledge, even though most of times their discoveries and breakthroughs were shots in the dark, since knowledge was something that was still evolving and being produced. Due to this, serendipity was a scientist best friend, and most of the discoveries and substances produced in the past, and which are so loved today, were serendipity. Even today serendipity is important in any field of science, physics, chemistry, biology, or any other. All because in science nothing is for sure, everything is a hypothesis, and what we expect to happen may be completely different, and random situations may create things that we could never imagine. Everything scientists do is in fact a strike of luck, of course there are studies and experiments, and a lot of rationality to each hypothesis, but science is one of the most unpredictable fields ever, and it keeps surprising us even today.

            In the book ‘Napoleon’s buttons, 17 molecules that changed history’, we have seen the various molecules, that now seen common, were once factors that had crucial effects in the world, either on people and entire nations, on the environment or even in history itself. Most of these molecules that had such a big impact in our world were also a case of casualty, the proof that serendipity also has the potential to change the world just like the molecules that were accidently originated. The book mentions innumerous events where serendipity has had a crucial role, being driving force of the discovery of saccharin, mauve, and penicillin, for example. Saccharin was the first artificial sweetener to be developed, and its discovery was a lucky strike. When a university student at John Hopkins was eating his bread, he noticed a very sweet taste that was not normal in what he was eating, and when he went back to the lab to taste every sample of the molecules he had been working with that day, he found the intense sweetness of the molecule, which was them eventually produced and used as a sugar substitute, and opened the doors for all the sweeteners that would then be produced.  Another example of serendipity in chemistry was the discovery of the mauve dye, the dye and color that took the world by storm. William Henry Perkin was the student which discovered this amazing die, and it was all a huge case of serendipity because Perkins wasn’t even looking for a dye, we was in fact studying quinine, and trying to produce this antimalarial molecule. However, in his unsuccessful reactions to produce the molecule, Perkins noticed a black substance that was produced with those same reactions and that when dissolved in ethanol it would turn to a purple color, and had the ability to dye fabric. This was the creation of the dye that completely changed the world of dye and made the period be referred to as the ‘mauve decade’. One more example that we can take in account for the various fields that serendipity has been important to was the discovery of penicillin, probably one of the most important and well known cases of serendipity. Penicillin was found by Alexander Fleming, and the fact is, that he was the last one to expect such discovery. When Fleming was studying cultures of staphylococci bacteria, he observed that the culture had been contaminated by a mold from the penicillium family and that the bacteria had undergone lysis, or in other words, the bacteria had died. Fleming then understood that that mold had an antibiotic effect on the bacteria, and for mere luck, Fleming had just found penicillin one of the most important antibiotics today.

            As we can see from all this historic events and discoveries, serendipity has existed for centuries, and luck has always been a plus for a scientist. These are only some of the examples of serendipity, but there have been innumerous cases. In a field where nothing is for sure, and luck is one of the most important assistants of discovery, serendipity is, for sure, a scientist best friend.