43 points

Also a ton of discoveries and inventions are on accident while looking for completely different things.

permalink
report
reply
14 points
*

One of my favourite stories is the accidental discovery of synthetic purple dye. IIRC there was a chemist researching something completely unrelated and when he disposed some assorted chemicals down a sink he noticed they turned purple.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Also, I believe the rubber was discovered by a scientist accidentally dropping a mixture of a bunch of materials like resin onto a burner, which made it volcanize (man I hope I got the word right) into a layer of rubber in the middle

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

Vulcanize, haha. All good, though!

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points
*

This is basically the reason we have artificial sweeteners, too.

Some dude was trying to make/do something, and labs were sort of “lol everything is safe” back then so he like… had a sandwich… and noticed it was sweet… so he just sort of tasted all the stuff he was working with and found aspartame. (I believe it was aspartame)

I believe the same is true for fabreeze, the underlying chemical mechanism was an accidental discovery because the researcher’s wife noticed he didn’t smell of cigarettes. It never caught on tho because it, naturally, has no smell, and you become blind to smells you are constantly exposed to, so until they added perfumes (fabreeze as we know it today), even tho it worked, nobody cared to use it. I wish I could actually find it unscented… the scented shit stinks and gives me headaches.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

It’s Febreeze. I know I’m being a stupid spelling nazi but I swear everyone spells it wrong and for some reason it drives me crazy. I have similar feelings about Scünci from my youth, but that battle has long been lost.

permalink
report
parent
reply
14 points

This is what the show Connections by James Burke was about. It’s available on YouTube.

permalink
report
reply
4 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

I mention it when it seems relevant, so it could have been me. If not, thanks to whoever is spreading the love of that wonderful series.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Connections 2 episodes are only 20 minutes instead of 45, which might be a bit easier to get your kid into. There’s also a Connections 3 but they’re back up to 50 minutes.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I was looking to see if this had been posted! A fascinating and essential look at how our modern civilization came to be.

permalink
report
parent
reply
55 points

If this type of basic science research interests you, in the US there is a federal agency dedicated to this pursuit; the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov)

95% of its annual budget goes out the door in the form of research grants to colleges, small businesses and individuals. Most of the research has no immediate application but has lead to some very exciting discoveries. The biggest in the recent past was that orange donut picture of a black hole that was everywhere. ( https://new.nsf.gov/blackholes/how-are-black-holes-studied#eht)

permalink
report
reply
22 points

NSF pays my salary. They are goated with the sauce

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

Fun fact, the NSF was founded after WWII to fund basic science just in case it found something with applications.

Unfortunately, the driving force behind it was the DOD, whose idea was that if even 1% of the work funded eventually became relevant to weapons research, then it would be “worth it”. But hey, at least basic science got funded.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Now NSF funds all branches of science excluding defense and most medical. Those are DOD and NIH for the most part.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Yeah, and in the last couple decades the NIH and NSF have become more applications-focused. If you can’t show a commercial application for your basic research. It’s less likely to get funded. Now, the DOD is the easiest way to get true basic research funded, which isn’t ideal; only basic research which the DOD thinks is important will get funded.

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

All the science is connected… Except climate science. That’s voodoo witch talk and we should keep pumping millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. WCGW?

permalink
report
reply
33 points

Those discoveries benefit all of us in turn. Microwave ovens, digital cameras, water filters, freeze drying, memory foam, and many other inventions we use daily were created by funding scientists to collaboratively solve problems unique to space.

permalink
report
reply
9 points
*

And literally all of modern electronics works in no small part because of our understanding of calculus, which, in turn, wouldn’t exist if we didn’t ponder the concepts of infinities in mathematics. Which might seem like one of the most removed from reality ideas, but here we are

permalink
report
parent
reply

Science Memes

!science_memes@mander.xyz

Create post

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don’t throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

Community stats

  • 10K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.2K

    Posts

  • 51K

    Comments