Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science

This is a fun book filled with vignettes about the discovery of something that we take for granted today. Serendipity is a gift for finding something good by accident, luck, or good fortune. Velcro®, penicillin, X-rays, dynamite, streaking, yes streaking, all have their roots in serendipity.

Archimedes was the first streaker. He calculated a way to measure the actual amount of gold used in a crown that the king had commissioned. King Hiero had provided the gold, but did not trust the goldsmith. Archimedes had already written mathematical formulas for finding the volume of a sphere and cylinder, but this was an irregular solid object. He was in the public baths in Syracuse when it dawned on him that the volume of an object would displace an equal volume of water. He ran from the bathhouse yelling, "Eureka, I've got it!" He simply forgot to put his clothes back on. The king was right to be suspicious, by the way.

Had it not been for his intelligence, sound judgement, and wisdom he would not be credited with the discovery. This is the theme throughout the book. "Accidents become discoveries because of the sagacity of the person who encountered the accident."

For students or trivia champions knowing the background, especially the accidental and humorous beginnings of something, makes remembering who discovered what and why easier. The bonus is that you get a few good chuckles too. Five stars for the discoverers.

Victoria Tarrani

An excellent book on the breakthroughs in science which have in some way been fuelled by chance. Inspiration came to Archimedes while sitting in the bath and to Isaac Newton under an apple tree, as we all know; but Roberts offers other less well-known yet fascinating tales of scientific discovery. I was intrigued to read that Bill Gates invented the left-handed mouse while "working on something else" - according to the Microsoft guru himself.