History seems to be filled with examples of discovery due to serendipity, error, and exaptation. In an earlier post, I wrote about the accidental discovery of the penicillin group of antibiotics. This was both error, the scientist did not properly clean, and serendipity, in that instead of thinking “Shoot, that’s corrupted, let’s start over.”, and instead thought, “That’s interesting, I wonder why.” In a way, the pirate, author, and long-distance sailing enthusiast Christopher Columbus found the new world, aka the British West Indies, through error. Not the best at math. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great error, but an error non-the-less. While the common story of Isaac Newton getting assaulted by an apple is an exaggeration (Gefter, 2010), it was a falling apple that provided his moment of clarity, serendipity if you would, that led to the development of the field of Newtonian Physics. Now that’s something to strive for, having something named after you. Hopefully, something that ...
*laughs* Wonderful perspectives on life, and told with heart and soul. Thank you for sharing your insights!
ReplyDelete