Customer Reviews

Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science

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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.

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

This book is a really fun read for the science enthusiast. The author, a researcher in organic chemistry, emphasizes the role played by chance in scientific discovery, "serendipity" as he titles the book, and as such he argues for a particular philosophy of science. But serendipity does not imply pure dumb luck, as the author explains, but rather "sagacity" is an important ingredient; these great scientists and inventors had the perspicuity and imagination to recognize the importance of their chance discoveries--i.e. that muck at the bottom of the flask had some truly intriguing properties!

The book is structured as a series of articles on serendipitous discoveries from the time of Archimedes right up into the late twentieth century. Sometimes romance and scientific legend are employed, especially in the early half of the book, in order to entertain and support the thesis of serendipity, but I think little is lost by such speculation. What I found most interesting about the book is that organic and industrial chemistry are emphasized in the content, probably owing to the author's background, rather than the usual more glamorous popular science fare of physics and medicine. As a result, much of the information is new to the more jaded science reader. I personally had never read the story of Joseph Priestly, who discovered of oxygen, the basic reactions of photosynthesis, and so many other marvelous discoveries, until I read this book! I find it amazing that Priestly receives nary a mention in the standard college science course, while a media clown like Einstein is instantly recognizable to the general public, most of whom could not even describe to you what he supposedly "discovered".

Contained herein are the stories of the discoveries of the various elements, iodine, the noble gases, safety glass, velcro, teflon and many other amazing products of human technology. The book is richly decorated, filled with illustrations, photographs, and cartoons. Part of what enticed me to read the book was a nice three dimensional structural formula of vitamin B12, the largest natural molecule ever synthesized de novo. There is something here for everone.

On the down side, I think perhaps the author brought in too much organic chemistry, some of it quite technical, for readers who have not taken organic chemistry before. Maybe trained scientists are the target audience, however, and his enthusiasm for his own field is understandable. And my own personal experiences with organic have lead me to believe that much of it is groping in the dark, so maybe the author's trade is no coincidence.

Royston Roberts was my professor at the Univ. of Texas in Austin in the early 1980s. He was, perhaps, the best professor I ever had. He never hid the dramatic unfolding of life from chemical compounds. There was no name for it in those days, but today I can clearly say that this man was one of the fathers of modern the "Intelligent Design Theory." He understood that science was observed from events, and that theories were developed from those events. (He opposed what is done in so many institutions today, the search for evidence to support existing theories.)

This book lay in piles of notes and articles on his desk for years. He shared the stories with his students. It makes science come alive in a real and tangible way that is not sterile. This book is easily readable by any budding young scientist. It is reasonably priced. Go ahead and purchase it. You will enjoy it.