this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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Progress happens with every death (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago (11 children)

Also a ton of discoveries and inventions are on accident while looking for completely different things.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

One of my favourite stories is the accidental discovery of synthetic purple dye. IIRC there was a chemist researching something completely unrelated and when he disposed some assorted chemicals down a sink he noticed they turned purple.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also, I believe the rubber was discovered by a scientist accidentally dropping a mixture of a bunch of materials like resin onto a burner, which made it volcanize (man I hope I got the word right) into a layer of rubber in the middle

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Vulcanize, haha. All good, though!

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