The Accidental Scientist The Role of Chance and Luck in Scientific Discovery

Explore the role of chance, luck, and error in scientific, medical, and commercial innovation with examples of how well-known products, gadgets, and useful gizmos came to be Have you ever wondered how the ideas for some things come about? Surprisingly, it is often as much down to chance as a single person's brilliance. Encompassing everything from DNA profiling to fingerprinting and TNT to the telephone, this book explores many of the discoveries that we are all so familiar with today, yet have the most interesting origins because of the story behind them. Not all discoveries require brilliance, and as The Accidental Scientist demonstrates, sometimes a special ingredient is needed: luck.

Graeme Donald is the author of Lies, Damned Lies and History; The Long and the Short of It; and Words of a Feather.