Article: Some researchers would rather be lucky than good: serendipity plays a larger role in laboratory work than some care to admit.(Gleams & Notions)

MOST OF THE TIME, a chemist relies on her years of schooling and work experience to develop a best-selling makeup or skin care formula. Sometimes, though, it's just a case of dumb luck! Webster's definition of serendipity is "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for." My definition is "when good things happen by accident." Serendipity can also happen in a research laboratory. For example, a chemist may pick up the wrong chemical by mistake, use it in a formula and find out that it works better than the chemical he meant to use. Here are some famous examples of serendipity. In 1922, Alexander Fleming made an important ...

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