A couple days ago I was gazing at the night sky full of stars, a moon at clear view, and a couple of airplanes flying by and I wondered, “Could there be something we missed?” I wish to argue that there is a possibility that some inventions and discoveries, scientific or medical, could have been overlooked and never created due to our highly advancing society. Essentially, could there have been some inventions we missed out on simply because our technology and society has drastically changed in a short amount of time? Since it is difficult to talk about what has not been invented without me inventing it as I discuss it, I will discuss what has been invented that could have been near misses.

     There have been many inventions and discoveries that were accidental throughout history. For example, the microwave oven was accidentally invented in 1946 when Dr. Percy Spencer was studying magnetrons. He had a chocolate bar in his pocket which melted due to long exposure to microwaves and he realized that the magnetron produced microwaves which were capable of heating things up (Gallawa). This eventually led to the creation of the microwave and its everyday use to heat up food. I wonder, would we still have the microwave oven had he not kept a chocolate bar in his pocket? I would imagine that it would eventually be discovered but the world would be slightly different to the one we are in today.

     Another discovery was the X-Ray. In 1895, W. C. Roentgen was working with a cathode ray tube and used a paper to block out the glow of the tube. When he did this, he noticed that it produced a ray that was capable of going through certain objects. He called it an X-ray. The very first X-ray image taken was one which shows the skeleton of his wife’s hand with her wedding ring on (NDT). Although this one doesn’t seem much like an accident, Roentgen toying with the cathode ray tube did revolutionize medical imaging. The X-ray started to be used for clinical purposes. The X-rays were also being used on feet to see if the shoes fit the wearer at shoe stores during the first half of the 20th century as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbMN6jueU1A. They were used this way until it was revealed that long term exposure to the rays would lead to cancer.

Another accidental invention was made by Wilson Greatbatch in the 1950s as he built oscillators to record heart beats. He put the wrong resistor into the oscillator without noticing until he turned it on and it gave off a rhythmic electrical pulse, the first pacemaker (Kelly). The accidental discovery of an implantable pacemaker led to many people having their lives changed for the better.

     One of the most important medical discoveries, the world’s first antibiotic, penicillin, was created on accident. In 1928, Dr. Alexander Fleming had left out petri dishes as he left for vacation. When he returned, he noticed that the penicillin mold grew on the petri dishes he left out. He also noticed that the penicillin mold was able to hinder the growth of bacteria and possibly infectious diseases (Markel). This eventually led to more analysis on the use of Penicillin and had saved many lives during World War II since it was used to fight off infections. This was one of the major examples of accidental discovery that helped shape my question that I posed earlier. What if Dr. Fleming had not left out those petri dishes? Would we not have Penicillin as an antibiotic now? Would my sister be allergic to it still?

The line of discovery doesn’t stop at useful inventions. Several common commodities have been accidentally invented. For example, chewing gum was supposed to be substitute for rubber. In the 1850s, Thomas Adams got his hands on chicle, an early form of chewing gum chewed by the Mayas and Aztecs, and tried to use it as rubber but when he couldn’t, he decided to turn it into a better tasting modern-day chewing gum (Nix). What would we be chewing to make our breath smell better if he had not developed the chewing gum? Other examples of accidental inventions were the inventions of play-doh, silly putty, and slinkys. Could you imagine a childhood without these four inventions? How could somebody have a childhood without watching a slinky make it’s way down a flight of stairs, squeezing silly putty, getting play-doh stuck on the carpet, or never hearing these threatening words: “If you swallow that piece of gum, it will stay in your stomach for seven years”? These accidental discoveries either shaped our culture, improved society, or did both. For a moment, try to imagine a world where none of the already discussed inventions were ever created or discovered. Just how different is that world? It is interesting how the Butterfly effect plays a role in history.

   Now we must look to the future. It is difficult to imagine what the future would be like but there may be things that will definitely limit what we discover. When it comes to natural medicine, I hope we are able to discover new cures from plants that are out in the wild before it is too late. I don’t believe that the entire natural environment will be destroyed but there is a possibility of future cures being lost. For example, what if there is a cure to diseases and illnesses such as cancer or arthritis, or maybe even components that could lead to the development of a cure for these incurable diseases waiting in nature. What if tomorrow, somebody accidentally discovers a cure? Maybe in the future we will finally find out how to truly create hover boards, create a new toy, or find a more effective way to industrialize. The path to discovery simply takes a bit of intelligence, curiosity, and creativity.

Works cited:

Gallawa, J. Carlton. “A Brief History of the Microwave Oven”.  http://www.smecc.org/microwave_oven.htm.

Kelly. “Wilson Greatbatch, The Man Who Accidentally Invented the Pacemaker, Has Died”. September 28, 2011. https://gizmodo.com/wilson-greatbatch-the-man-who-accidentally-invented-th-5844558.

Markel, Howard. “The Real Story Behind Penicillin”. September 27, 2013. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic.

NDT Resource Center. “The Discovery of X-Rays”. https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Radiography/discoveryxrays.htm.

Nix, Elizabeth. “Chew on This: The History of Gum”. February 13, 2015. https://www.history.com/news/chew-on-this-the-history-of-gum.