Mistakes That Made Happy Coincidences After scientists accidentally created mutant plastic-eating enzymes, we look at other unintentional discoveries that changed the world.



(Text: Shannon Tellis)

Implantable Pacemaker In the 1950s, pacemakers were large, television-sized machines that were temporarily attached to patients from the outside. Thankfully, a technical mistake by Wilson Greatbatch changed everything. While working on an os cillator to record heart sounds, he accidentally installed a 1-megaohm resistor instead of the 10,000-ohm variety. When the prototype started giving off a rhythmic electrical pulse very similar to the human heart, Greatbatch realised the device could be placed in someone’s chest to help their heart beat. He refined the device and was awarded a patent two years later.

Cola This popular soft drink actually started as a medicine for morphine addicts. Post the American Civil War, pharmacist John Pemberton invented a recipe made from coca leaves and coca wines to combat his addiction to morphine. It was also marketed as an opium-free painkiller. When legislative prohibition hit a year later, Pemberton came up with a non-alcoholic version that became the beverage we know today. The first sales were at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, where it was as a patent medicine for five cents.

Post-It Notes If you’ve ever reached out for these colourful sticky notes, you have 3M employee Arthur Fry to thank. In 1968, an employee was trying to develop a strong adhesive, but accidentally created a weaker one instead. Not knowing what to do with it, he abandoned the project. It was only six years later, when Fry needed a light adhesive to attach bookmarks to his church hymn book, that the idea for post-its was born. While the company was initially sceptical about the product’s use, they were launched in 1980 and are now sold in more than 100 countries.