Algunos grandes descubrimientos son producto de la casualidad

Siempre hemos pensando que los grandes descubrimientos e invenciones son producto del esfuerzo y dedicación, pues bien aunque esto es cierto también hay otros donde converge una mente brillante y la SUERTE, por ejemplo cuando se descubrió la penicilina, no se buscaba en ningún momento un antibiótico, o cuando Charles Goodyear descubrió el caucho para llantas, él tampoco buscaba esto, los anteriores y algunos otros descubrimientos han sido producto de una mente preparada y eventos fortuitos. Con las siguientes lecturas tomadas del libro Happy Accidents entenderán por qué les digo esto y pues claro al mismo tiempo practicamos un poquito inglés.

THE SURPRISING POWERS OF MOLDY BREAD 

Alexander Fleming was a London doctor who had seeen the horros of World War I. He knew that thousands of soldiers were killed in the fighting, but many more died because of infections that developed in their wounds. There was no way to stop these terrible infections at that time. But in1928 Fleming had been studying a kind of bacteria called "staphylococcus", this is a germ that can cause terrible infections. Fleming had been growing the bacteria in glass dishes in his laboratory. When he went away for a short vacation, he forgot to clean the dishes, and he left them near an open window. When he came back, he found that some mold had grown on the dishes. It was the kind of mold that grows on old bread. 

Fleming did not throw them out. He decided to look at them under his microscope. Fleming was amazed by what he saw. The staphylococcus bacteria had continued to grow in the dishes, except around the mold. Something in the mold was killing the deadly germs. It was a fungus called "Penicillium notatum" , this has saved millions of lives around the world.

GOODYEAR HAPPY ACCIDENT IN THE KITCHEN

People have been using rubber for hundreds of years. Long ago, the first tried to make waterproof shoes out of it. But that did not work very well. In hot weather, the rubber became soft and it melted. In cold weather, it became hard and it cracked like glass.

Many scientists and inventors experimented with rubber. They hoped to solved these problems. Charles Goodyear was one of these people. At his home in the United States, he tried mixing rubber with may other types of materials. But nothing worked.

In 1839, he tried mixing rubber with sulfur. It was a cold winter"s day, and he was working near the kitchen stove to keep warm. By accident, some of the mixture spilled onto the hot stove. Then he saw something surprising. Instead of melting, the rubber mixture had flattened into a circle. He lifted it off the stove and found that it was still very bendable and strong. He put it outside in the frezing weather. The next mornig  it was still bendable and strong.

It is called "vulcanized" rubber.   

COMO LEISTE MUCHOS INVENTOS SON PRODUCTO DE LA CASUALIDAD.