What are some accidental science discoveries? – Ask Your Science Teacher

Question: What are some accidental science discoveries?

Answer: There are quite a few. Penicillin, X rays, Teflon, the Rosetta Stone, vulcanized rubber, nylon, the laws of gravity, quinine, the electric battery, dynamite, the Dead Sea Scrolls, vaccination, the Big Bang, radioactivity, saccharin, the microwave, Play-doh, Corn Flakes, Super Glue, and Velcro are just a few.

A more accurate and better description would be to use the term “serendipity.” These were chance discoveries that led to momentous scientific developments. We should not discount the efforts and genius that went into these discoveries. Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Careful observation, curiosity, a sense of timing and history, and just plain good luck are all involved.

Let’s pick Teflon. On April 6, 1938, a young Ph.D. from Ohio State was a newly-hired Du Pont chemist. Roy J. Plunkett and an assistant, Jack Rebok, were working on trying to develop a new nontoxic refrigerant.

Dr. Plunkett opened a tank of tetrafluoroethylene. No gas came out. The two young scientists could have thrown the tank out and pulled out a new one to continue their experiment. But they were curious. They knew the valve was not defective because they could run a wire into the opening.

They sawed the tank open and looked inside. They found a waxy white powder clinging to the inside walls of the tank. They knew enough chemistry to realize that the gas had combined with something to form a solid material, a new polymer.

The waxy white powder had some neat properties. It was not affected by acids, bases, or heat, and no solvent could dissolve it. It had extremely low surface friction, i.e. it was slippery. They called it Teflon.

The scientists working on the first atomic bomb in the early 1940s needed a material for gaskets that would resist the very corrosive gas, uranium hexafluoride, used to extract the Uranium-235 needed to build the first atomic bomb. The Dupont company molded Teflon into valves and gaskets for this purpose. The public did not know anything about Teflon until after the war.

The first Teflon-coated muffin tins and frying pans came out in 1960. Results were not that good. It was difficult to get the Teflon to bond to metal surfaces, and too many people used scouring pads that they had traditionally employed on their metal cookware. Off came the Teflon. DuPont finally hit the Teflon jackpot in 1986 with their new generation Silver Stone Supra that was twice as durable.

We might know Teflon for cookware, but Teflon is also one of the few substances that the body doesn’t reject. Teflon is used on heart pacemakers and sections of material used to take the place of the aorta. Teflon is used for artificial corneas, substitute bones in the chin and nose, hip and knee joints, ear parts, heart valves, sutures, dentures and bile ducts.

Teflon is applied to the outer layers of space suits. Nose cones and space fuel tanks are coated with Teflon. Spacecraft that traveled to the Moon and beyond had wiring and cables insulated with Teflon. Teflon can resist the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

In 1951, Roy Plunkett gave a talk to a scientific convention in Philadelphia detailing his accidental discovery. Attendees were given a Teflon-coated muffin pan to take home.

Plunkett retired from DuPont in 1975, was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1985, enjoyed fishing and golfing near his home in Corpus Christi, and died in 1994 at age 83. His greatest joy, he said, was getting calls and letters from people who were alive because of a Teflon pacemaker or aorta.

Sources: sciencealert.com, history.com