Six big discoveries and inventions that happened by accident

Here are some big discoveries and inventions that happened by accident:

Velcro

Snacking, it appears, is good for science! And so is getting some fresh air now and then. On one of his hiking trips, swiss engineer Georges de Mestral found burrs (seeds) clinging to his pants. He noticed that it would cling to anything loop-shaped. The challenge was to create the loops artificially and the result — Velcro, a combination of velvet and crochet.

Coca-Cola

The inventor of Coca-Cola was not a shrewd businessman but a pharmacist looking for a cure for headache! For his hopeful headache cure, he used cola nut and cola leaves and when his lab assistant accidently mixed the two with carbonated water accidently, whizz, was born a carbonated drink that remains a bestseller.

Vulcanised Rubber


After years of trial and error to make natural rubber more durable, in 1839 scientist Charles Goodyear accidently dropped his experimental rubber in a hot stove. What came out was a charred leather-like substance. Rubber was weatherproof now and forever.

Viagra


Pfizer developed a pill called UK92480 to help constrict coronary arteries to relieve pain. The pill failed at that — but was a success with what it is now known for — a magic wand to improve men's sexual health and was marketed with the name Viagra.

Big Bang
The discovery of the theory began with a noise from an antenna that left Radio astronomer Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias perplexed, who later came to the conclusion that radiation leftover from a universe forming big bang would now act as background cosmic radiation. The two would later go on to receive Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.

Teflon


In 1938, Roy Plunkett, a scientist with DuPont was looking for alternatives to refrigerant. As he opened the box of one of his samples, he noticed that his experimental gas was gone and what was left was a slippery resin extremely resistant to heat and chemicals. It later found usage in nonstick cookware, sports equipment and paints, among other things.

Source: POPULARMECHANICS.COM, WIKIPEDIA