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we've all heard about unexpected
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discoveries or moments we've said aha
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but do these really just come down to
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luck
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are scientific discoveries merely lucky
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shots
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this is the university of the
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netherlands
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maybe you've heard this fact somewhere
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before the microwave wasn't invented to
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heat food
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i don't know what you do but that's
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generally what i use it for
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in 1945 engineer percy spencer though
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was working on a high power microwave
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beam
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while working on this in his lab he
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noticed that the chocolate bar in his
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pocket had started to melt
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and this was the discovery of the modern
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day commercial microwave
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when you think about it spencer was
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really lucky to come up with his
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invention after all if he didn't have a
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chocolate bar in his pocket he wouldn't
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have discovered it would melt in a
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microwave
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this is what we call serendipity
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sometimes serendipity is called a happy
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accident
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it means to make an unexpected discovery
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in 1754 horace walpole was the scholar
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who invented this word and he said it's
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making discoveries by accident and
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sagacity of things you are not in quest
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of
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and here sagacity means a kind of
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cleverness or wisdom really
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these can be small discoveries they can
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be big ones
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they can set us off on a new career path
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or it can be finding the perfect garden
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gnome for my collection in my neighbor's
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yard sale
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think to yourself for a moment
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serendipity happens to nearly all of us
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is there a time in your life when
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something unexpected made you say aha
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and set off in a new direction
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did you serendipitously meet your
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partner or find your job
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how many of you would say you've
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experienced this kind of thing called
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serendipity
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i've found serendipity happens all over
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the place and in many different ways
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but today i will talk about how these
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kinds of happy accidents happen in
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science
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and about whether we can make such
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accidental discoveries happen more often
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and importantly
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why that would take more than just luck
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first of all what do i mean by more than
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just luck and what does sagacity have to
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do with it as walpole suggested what
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kind of wisdom or cleverness makes some
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people more serendipitous
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let's go back a little bit
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maybe we can understand serendipity
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better through the fairy tale that
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horace walpole based his new word on the
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fairy tale of the three princes of
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serendip
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these three princes from serendip this
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is a land we now know as sri lanka were
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forced to go out and see the world by
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their king and father
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on their way to persia they made a
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number of observations in the desert
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while they traveled which became
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unexpectedly useful upon their arrival
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where they met a camel driver who had
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lost his camel
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have you seen a camel on the road they
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were asked
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oh was it lame in one leg carrying a
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pregnant woman with a jar of honey on
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one side and butter on the other they
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asked
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why yes so you have seen it
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why no they answered we have not
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they explained to the confused camel
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driver that they had rather seen signs
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of such a camel on the road by chance
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observation while they traveled they saw
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the footprints of a lame animal and the
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signs of a rather front-heavy woman
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taking a rest stop
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they'd seen ants and flies snacking in
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the sand along the road
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and from those signs they could surmise
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so much about the camel who had made
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those tracks in the sand
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well the camel driver thought they were
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liars and had them arrested and when
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they were finally proven innocent when
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someone else found the camel on the road
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just where they'd predicted it would be
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the king of persia rewarded them instead
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for their sharp observations and
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deductive skills
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the princes were not only lucky to pass
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by these clues
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and then also lucky to happen across the
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camel driver for whom these clues were
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relevant they were also clever enough to
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make the connection between what they
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had seen and the camel being sought
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to be serendipitous that is you not only
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have to happen to come across the right
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thing at the right time
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you also have to have the right kind of
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knowledge experience or expertise to
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perceive it in the right way and make
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that discovery
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but recent research has been finding
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it's not only more than just luck it's
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also more than just being clever wise or
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sagacious
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so let's look at scientific discoveries
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and some inventions for more examples
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the microwave isn't the only such
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discovery where luck played an important
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role
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we know about other famous ones like
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penicillin
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alexander fleming came back from holiday
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saw something funny in a petri dish he
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hadn't bothered to clean up before
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leaving
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instead of tossing it out he looked
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closer did a few experiments and set in
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motion the antibiotic era of medicine
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not to mention winning a nobel prize for
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his part but serendipity isn't only
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about these big discoveries that change
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the whole world
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i've found it happens all the time in
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science
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here's just a couple of the
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serendipitous discoveries that have made
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the news in the last year first
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sharing mice at the university of iowa
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might lead to a remote treatment for
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diabetes
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one student was studying the effects of
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electromagnetic fields on her mice
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she lent those mice to another student
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who wanted to measure their group
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glucose levels for her diabetes study
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everyone assumed the mice would be
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normal as far as glucose was concerned
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in fact until the second student did her
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measurements there was no reason to
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believe that electric or magnetic fields
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would have an effect on blood sugar
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levels
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or that we could help diabetic patients
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with them remotely
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this effect was serendipitously noticed
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when results not relevant and not even
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noticed by one person were found to be
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really important to another person's
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problem
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another example
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researchers had a fancy new tool for
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analyzing the composition of stone they
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wanted to find out why the stones at
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stonehenge were still standing so strong
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and tall
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but even with this new technology they
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could only see the surface layers
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they didn't think there was any way they
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could get to the core but a phone call
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from british heritage gave them a whole
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new resource
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it turns out more than 40 years ago a
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stone had fallen they drilled into it to
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reinforce it and the engineer who had
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received one of these bits of stonehedge
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stone had kept it all these years and
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just recently donated it to the heritage
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someone there had heard about the
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research project and gave them a call
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and here we have another example of
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where unexpected connections can lead to
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unexpected but very valuable resources
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for finding the things that we are
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seeking sometimes
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these examples show it's not just luck
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that leads to a discovery
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it's also more than the observation and
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effort of just one clever person
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these are examples of colleagues sharing
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what they notice working together maybe
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even playing with their results
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timing and luck do have something to do
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with it
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but so does a team of equally curious
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colleagues an institution that supports
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the research and outcomes that happen to
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be useful and valuable to others these
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can all be important too
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it's more than luck
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it's more than one moment of surprise to
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have serendipity in science
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there's everything that comes before and
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everything that comes after that aha
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moment that everybody talks about
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that's serendipity
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so now that we know a little bit more
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about serendipity as it happens let's
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see if we can make more serendipity
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happen
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after all it wouldn't be a bad thing to
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have more accidental discoveries like
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this often they lead to world-changing
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new knowledge even the small and
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personal serendipities can change lives
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and perspectives in really valuable ways
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but if we need it to be accidental
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we seem to be out of luck
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that is we can't make serendipity happen
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right
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if we make it happen
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then it wouldn't be serendipity
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we saw that both the context at the time
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of the accident and then what people do
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with it once it happens are important
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but we cannot force an accident
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it's in the very nature of accidents
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that they are
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well accidental
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specifically not something we can create
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and if we start to expect the unexpected
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then it's not really unexpected anymore
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this seems to cause a dilemma we want
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more accidental discoveries we cannot
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create accidents
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at least we can trip people in the
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hallway but we cannot create the kinds
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of accidents we want the ones that lead
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to serendipity
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and it seems that so long as serendipity
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is really unexpected we can't really
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prepare for it
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so we're stuck in a bit of a paradox
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but let's take a closer look again
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first
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go back once more to the princes that
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walpole uses to illustrate his idea
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they didn't know they would happen upon
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the camel driver but they still noticed
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luckily the right things along the road
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to help them out when they did meet him
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in the city
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now do we really think that's the only
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thing they noticed while walking through
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the desert to persia
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their cleverness was shown by putting to
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good use some things that they noticed
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even when they didn't know it would be
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useful to have noticed them
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and then they were able to recall and
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put them to use when the time was right
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so here's another very tricky thing
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about serendipity that seems to mean we
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can't make it happen
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we often don't know at the time
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what will be useful later on
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and frankly we can't just hoard all the
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ideas keeping all the facts in our
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brains just in case they would be useful
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that wouldn't be very reasonable
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so what could we do
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we network we trade we share
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and we're ready for anything
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we have to work together if we want more
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serendipity
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many serendipitous discoveries come
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about because of interactions between
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people
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people who knew interesting stuff
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but that when put together became very
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interesting stuff
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for example in the 1960s
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scientists penzias and wilson were
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trying to solve a problem at bell
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laboratories
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their antenna wouldn't stop making this
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low-level noise
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and they couldn't figure out what it was
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it was only after talking with
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researchers at princeton who were
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searching for evidence for cosmic
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background radiation
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the microwaves they predicted would be
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left over from the big bang
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and the noise pensios and wilson were
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trying to eliminate from their antenna
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by scrubbing off all the bat poop was
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just the evidence they needed
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not to mention finding a good use for
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their noise earned them a nose a nobel
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prize as well by the way
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so my work right now is really about how
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when it comes to research or to
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serendipity in general we need to play
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the long game
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short-term goals for success might be
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exciting
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and we think we need to seize the day
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but in reality it's not just about the
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day it's about all the things before
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it may take a long time before we run
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into that camel driver and we're going
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to have to be wise enough to recognize
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him when we do
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but we're better off if we try to do
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this together rather than waiting for
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lucky opportunities and genius observers
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to make big serendipitous discoveries
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that is
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what is needed are environments where
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it's not all about prediction and
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getting it right
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it's not all about shots in the dark and
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high risks of individuals
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but where it's about helping each other
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to figure out how and when to follow
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hunches
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not ignoring the unexpected
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and being open to what might be valuable
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about what each of us knows
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really it's about getting excited about
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the new stuff we might find out together
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try to understand better how we can make
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serendipity happen if we can
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i've been focusing lately especially on
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how we interact and how these kinds of
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exchanges can support serendipity where
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it happens
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for example
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i teach ethics and philosophy to
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engineers
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in the classroom interactions are the
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most important things
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discussions are the highlights of our
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time together
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we get a chance to find out what each
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other thinks
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like when i give the class an unusual
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problem or a case study to think about
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the best ethics lessons emerge out of
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these conversations where we all
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discover something new about what we
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think
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by finding out something unexpected
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about each other or about the case
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these kinds of serendipities can be
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thought of as a kind of action we can
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take together
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like trying something new
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so
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scientists who made the big accidental
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discoveries in the history of science
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were they merely lucky
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not quite
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well chance plays a role for sure
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it's really about how we respond
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it is about the context it's about who's
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present
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it's about whether the person has the
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right knowledge or experience to turn an
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accident into a discovery
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but also we need to have research labs
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and institutions that encourage us to
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take risks together with mutual support
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and people who get excited with us about
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the possibilities that they open up
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so the answer to whether we can make
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serendipity happen is is really no
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we can't make a particular instance of
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serendipity happen
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but we can make the world a place where
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more serendipity happens for more people
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and i think that's a great thing
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and i think looking at interactions
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relationships and networks of sharing
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and support are the way to figure out
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how
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thank you for listening
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[Music]
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you
