Are there any significant discoveries that were discovered by accident?

 

Some inventions which changed world…

1. Sir Robert chesebrough (Vaseline)

Robert was a chemist who used to refine kerosene, but after decrease in petrol price his business slowdown.

One day during his visit to an oil refinery in Pennsylvania, he saw a worker removing some sticky thing from his body, when asked he told him that they used to apply it on burned or cut skin to heal the wound.

Thus, Robert got his “petroleum jelly”

When local chemist didn't show any trust in his product, He even travelled to New York to give live demornstration of this product. In front of large crowd he burned his skin and applied it over. In few years Vaseline was popular worldwide.

2. George de Mestral- (velcro)

George de Mestral was a Swiss engineer, in 1941 he went in woods with his dog for hunting. on arriving back he noticed that Burr seed was clung to his dog's fur and his clothes, he wondered and examined Burr under microscope and discovered that it was covered in tiny hooks and by that he was inspired by Hook and loop method.

He researched for 8 years and named it velcro vel(velvet) and cro(crochet).

A fastener way between buttons and zipper, it is now used in number of items including sandals,bags,toys,cords sweater to upto NASA.

Burr(which gave idea)

One of the most used product..

3. Humphrey O'Sullivan- (Rubber heeled shoes)

O'Sullivan was a young printer in Lowell, Massachusetts during 1895, he had to work on stone floor and had to stand while printing so wooden sole in his shoes and stone floor caused him pain in his feet.

so he bought a rubber mat to stand on while working, his fellow employees kept borrowing that rubber mate from him, because it was too comfortable so, he cut out two pieces of mate in heel size and nailed them to shoes.

He was pleased and astonished by the comfort of this shoes and started making full fledged rubber heels and eventually patented the idea.

In a few years his heels were being shipped all over country, one of his advertisement in newspaper……

4. Edouard Benedictus-(laminated glass)

Edouard a French chemist/scientist once was climbing a ladder and accidentally knock a glass flask of shelf. It fell to the floor and shattered but to his surprise shards of glass still remain in or almost in shape as before.

He was confused and asked his assistant what was in the flask he said cellulose nitrate (liquid plastic). After the experiments a layer of cellulose nitrate remained in the flask prevented glass from breaking.

This gave edouard idea of safety glass/laminated glass on windscreen which has saved so many lives after accidents.

Swedish company Volvo used this safety glass first time in Volvo PV 44 as windscreen in 1944.

5. Percy Spenser-(microwave oven)

He was an American radar Engineer who used to focus on working and building of magnetron because magnetron generated microwave signals which was core mechanism of radar.

One day when he was working a candy bar in his pocket melted at first he was confused and then he understood that it was miracle of the microwaves he put a Bowl of corn and made first “microwaved popcorn”.

Percy continued experimenting and made microwave by attaching a high density electromagnetic field generator to an enclosed metal box.

6.Willis Carrier-(air conditioner)

In 1902 the Willis was given a project by his company buffalo forge to solve a problem of humidity in a lithographic and printing company in Brooklyn, they told him that the problem was that because of humidity in printing room ink would not dry.

He worked several years on this project, one day in garden when he saw moisture droplets on an alluminium pipe, an idea struck his mind.

he used pipe that would carry cold water and beneath them he kept two fan one would throw moist air towards pipe and other one kept moving air circulation of room.

Thanks to Willis otherwise imagine summer in cities like Delhi, Ahmadabad and Rajasthan(state) without air conditioner!!

Present time air conditioner

The Best way to predict future is to invent it- Alan kay

What incredible archaeological discoveries came in the least expected places?

 The Secret Under Gobekli Tepe: The Shepherds Knew First.

It is just the bare fact that people were walking over history and they did not even realize it. These stones had been used over the years as normal rocks by local shepherds. This is because they did not know that they were sitting on something big.

Then archeologists appeared--and all was different.

In Gobekli Tepe, they discovered large stone pillars which were more than 10,000 years old. That is even older than the pyramids. The shocking part? Those who constructed them were mere hunters. Cities, no; machines, no; and yet they created something great.

It doesn't stop there.

Near at hand is Karahan Tepe and this is even older--about 12,000 years. It has queer carvings and sunk deep stone rooms. It appears to be a worshiping place and not a relatable living place.

And it all came about in the Younger Dryas, when the world was very cold and harsh. It was hard to live--but man was creating.

So what does this mean?

Perhaps, it is not so much that people initially constructed farms then constructed temples. Perhaps they erected temples at first--and that compelled them to make themselves permanent.

Suppose that that is the case, then we may have the entire narrative of the ancient civilization incorrect.

What is the most interesting archaeological discovery ever made?

 The archaeological discovery that changed our entire understanding of the level of technology possessed by ancient civilisations, remaining unequalled for more than 1,500 years.

Since its discovery, it has remained the most compelling Archeological artefact ever found, being studied more than any other single artefact in the entire history of Archaeology. However, only in the last few years can we finally say we understand the true purpose and scale of the genius behind it.

The remarkable events that led to this Archeological discovery in many ways echo the chilling circumstances behind its owner's harrowing final moments.

“How does the bust of some hairy man change our understanding of anything, this is total twaddle!"

A plethora of stunning statues and treasures were discovered alongside this extraordinary artefact, in many ways, stealing the limelight at first.

During the spring of 1900, a small crew of Greek Sponge divers were forced to venture further from their home waters to find new Sponge fishing grounds, while sailing south their small fishing boat encountered a violent storm that ripped at their sails and drove them towards the rocks of a small island.

As the sea churned, forming valleys of seething deep green that threatened to capsize their small vessel or smash it against unseen rocks in the chaotic frenzy of the stormy gloom, the Greek captain wrestled for control of his little boat against the forces of nature, guiding it into a bay that sheltered them from the worst of the severe storm.

The next day, the crew awoke to find the sky clear and the water that had threatened to take their lives the night before now calm and crystal clear. Having never fished the waters around this island before, the captain sent a young diver down to see if there was any Sponge fishing to be had.

Elias regretted eating pickled fish and tinned beans last night.

Not long after going down, the young diver started violently tugging at his rope in a desperate panic, so the crew quickly pulled him to the surface and removed his brass helmet, shaking like a leaf, the diver said that he had seen heaps of dead bodies beneath them.

The captain suited up and decided he would go down and see for himself, because this had to be one of the most over-the-top excuses he had ever heard. What he found stunned him, for the dead bodies were in fact a mass of exquisite bronze and marble statues littered across the seabed. The captain explored the shipwreck for a while, before taking a bronze arm and returning to the surface.

The bronze arm of a boxer, found at the wreck.

With the shipwreck discovered, but not a Sponge in sight, the rather practical crew carried on their voyage to better Sponge fishing grounds, with a bronze arm safety tucked away.

Later that year, the Captain approached the Greek authorities with his bronze arm and explained his find and before long an expedition was organised with the original Sponge diving crew tasked with the role of recovering artefacts from the wreck.

Over the next two years the Sponge Divers turned Marine Archeologists would battle rough seas and storms around the island, while bringing up a vast quantity of ancient statues, coins, pristine Hellenistic glassware, and a wealth of extraordinary finds.

The shipwreck had been an enormous vessel for the ancient world and had carried a staggering amount of exquisite valuables, all of which now lay just beneath the surface.

This massive galley had probably been caught in the storms and rough seas around the little island, just as the Sponge Divers boat had, but unlike the smaller fishing boat, the Greek treasure ship had not survived, sinking around 80 BC.

Amongst all the treasure, from gold and silver coins to priceless ancient statues and jewellery, a small lump of green corroded bronze was found and chucked to the side, where it would remain in storage for the next two years, totally overlooked, sadly degrading without the proper treatment it had urgently required upon removal from the water.

The Antikythera Mechanism, 200BC.

Until one day, a visiting MP noticed the unassuming clump of green corroded bronze neglected in the corner and took a closer look, it had dried out and split, inside he could see countless gear wheels with tiny teeth, engravings and intricate mechanisms.

Naturally, everyone suddenly stopped caring about everything else from the shipwreck and focused on this remarkable artefact.

Scientists, Linguists, Archeologists, Astronomers and Naval experts from all around the world started studying the little machine. However, being only the early 1900s, it was difficult to truly understand this ingenious device, for the next 50 years it baffled the world.

Until a series of rather clever fellows slowly pieced it together, one gear diagram at a time, British Professor Price commissioned an X-ray of the Antikythera Mechanism and worked out how many teeth were on some of the gears, which seems like a rather small step forwards, but meant they now knew the device could calculate the cycles and position of the moon.

Jump forward to the last few years and a study led by the University of Cardiff in Wales which built a state-of-the-art scanner to finally unlock the answers to perhaps the greatest mystery in the history of Archaeology.

Using their custom-built high-resolution surface scanner and X-ray machine, the findings revealed 37 intricate meshing bronze gears, precision mechanisms and thousands of fine engravings.

This Antikythera Mechanism was the first analogue computer in history. It could map the movements of the moon and sun through the zodiac, accurately predict future eclipses and calculate the position of Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Technology of this level quite literally didn't belong in the ancient world, or so we originally thought.

The ancient writing of Cicero talks of two incredible mechanical devices that the genius Archimedes built in the 2nd century BC, which could calculate the positions of the moon and stars with precision, the Antikythera Mechanism is possibly one of these two devices or a later copy.

---

2,200 years ago, Ancient Greeks built astronomical computers that would not be equalled until the 15th century.

‘If the insight of the ancient Greeks had matched their ingenuity, we would not merely be pottering around on the Moon, we would have reached the nearer stars.’ — Arthur C. Clarke.

What are some of the most disturbing discoveries of the universe?

 It’s 2:30am here, and I’m barely alive. So, I’m letting my inner edgy teenager out.

Have you ever wondered about the “intentions” of God, Universe, Mother Nature, or whatever superior power you believe in?

Yes, we’re going there today.

And, I think I’ve finally figured it out!

Also no, I’m not trying to start a cult. Too much competition these days, anyway!

However, what I have realized is one of the most disturbing discoveries (of course, not made by me) about the universe. Well, at least to me, it is.

And it’s quite straightforward really: The universe doesn’t want us in it!

Image Credits: New Dark Energy Data Emerges from Misshapen, Distorted, Ancient Voids

Not just us. Animals, plants, planets, stars, galaxies – you name it, the universe hates it.

So, what does it want then? Well, nothing!

I mean, literally “nothing.” Space. Emptiness. The unending vacuum.

The universe loves emptiness so much that it’s actively creating more of it. Space between galaxies is expanding on the large scale.

Matter itself is an aberration in this universe – an infinitesimal, insignificant anomaly.

Even the oddity that is matter is mostly space. You’ve probably heard that the atom is 100,000 times bigger than the atomic nucleus. So, that’s all matter really is – the nucleus and a few electrons. The rest is just space, even within the atom.

If you stack pure matter together without any space in-between, there’s almost negligible matter.

Think of it like this. Sun’s radius is about 696,340km. We call it an average star, but let’s be real. It’s a colossal giant in comparison to anything in the solar system.

Yet, it’s mostly empty space too because it’s made of ionic atoms. If we compress it to such an extent that there’s no empty space in-between subatomic particles, it will turn into a black hole of just 3km radius.

That’s how much matter really exists within the Sun.

And don’t even get me started on the Earth. It would measure less than 1cm or one-third of an inch. That’s smaller than your fingernail!

I cannot stress this enough: there’s very little matter in the universe!

And that little bit of matter is in a state of perpetual decay.

One way or the other, all matter we know is getting converted into radiation at different rates.

Stars, planet, and even black holes are not safe from this cosmic decay.

Eventually, in the far far future, all matter in the universe – including all black holes – will be converted into radiation.

The universe will finally get what it wants. It will be left with vast emptiness, with literally nothing in it and nothing happening in it.

We are the unwanted guests of an indifferent universe that’s just waiting for everything to die so that it can sleep undisturbed forever!

Inventions and Discoveries

 What are Inventions and Discoveries?

An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. Whereas, discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something previously unrecognized as meaningful. 

Here's a list:

Sr.No.	Invention	Person
1.	Aeroplane	Wright Brothers
2.	Air Conditioner	Willis Carrier
3.	Atom Bomb	Otto Hahn
4.	Braily System	Louis Braille
5.	Boson	S.N Bose
6.	Ball Pen	Loud
7.	Cinema	Lumiere Brothers
8.	Celluloid	Alexander Parkes
9.	Coloured Photography	Gabriel Lippmann
10.	Diesel Engine	Rudolf Diesel
11.	Dynamite	Alfred Nobel
12.	Discovery of Solar System	Nicolaus Copernicus
13.	Electric Battery	Alessandro Volta
14.	Electricity	Michael Faraday
15.	Elevator	Elisha Otis
16.	Fountain Pen	Lewis Waterman
17.	Fahrenheit Scale	Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
18.	Film & Photographic goods	Kodak
19.	Generator	Piciontti
20.	Gramaphone	Thomas Alva Edison

21.	Geometry	Euclid
22.	Hydrogen	Henry Cavendish
23.	Homoeopathy	Samuel Hahnemann
24.	Microbiology, Chemistry	Louis Pasteur
25.	Aviation (Jet engine)	Sir Frank Whittle
26.	Physiology, Medicine (co-discovered insulin)	Frederick Banting
27.	Physics (induction coil)	Heinrich Ruhmkorff
28.	Psychology (intelligence test)	Alfred Binet
29.	Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy	Issac Newton
30.	Physics Laser	Theodore Maiman
31.	Chemistry (Laughing Gas)	Joseph Priestley
32.	Polymath (electricity, printing, diplomacy)	Benjamin Franklin
33.	Firearms (Gatling gun)	Dr Richard Gatling
34.	Microscope (early development)	Hans and Zacharias Janssen
35.	Physics (Raman effect)	C. V. Raman
36.	Chemistry (discovered neon gas)	William Ramsay and Morris Travers
37.	Physics (nuclear fission)	Otto Hahn
38.	Chemistry (nylon)	Wallace Carothers
39.	Chemistry (discovered oxygen)	Joseph Priestley
40.	Biology (evolution by natural selection)	Charles Darwin

41.	Medicine (discovered penicillin)	Alexander Fleming
42.	Engineering (pneumatic tire)	John Boyd Dunlop
43.	Printing (printing press in Europe)	Johannes Gutenberg
45.	Raman effect	C.V.Raman
46.	Physics, Chemistry (radioactivity)	Marie Curie
47.	Engineering (radio technology)	Edwin Howard Armstrong (Alexanderson's work influenced radio transmission)
48.	Physics (quantum theory)	Max Planck
49.	Engineering (steam engine)	James Watt
50.	Medicine (stethoscope)	René Laennec
51.	Engineering (early submarine)	David Bushnell
52.	Chemistry (thermos flask)	James Dewar
53.	Engineering (television)	John Logie Baird
54.	Astronomy, Physics (telescope)	Galileo Galilei
55.	Physics (nuclear fission)	Otto Hahn
56.	Astronomy (discovered Uranus)	William Herschel
57.	Medicine (vaccination)	Edward Jenner
58.	Chemistry (vulcanization of rubber)	Charles Goodyear
59.	Physics (wireless communication)	Oliver Lodge
60.	Engineering (wireless telegraphy)	Guglielmo Marconi
61.	Physics (X-ray)	Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen