Sometimes we make simple mistakes. We forget something or overlook a step in a process. It happens. Sometimes it leads to trouble. Other times…
From Idea Finder:
The year was 1903. Benedictus climbed a ladder to fetch reagents from a shelf and inadvertently knocked a glass flask to the floor. He heard the glass shatter, but when he glanced down, to his astonishment the broken pieces of the flask still hung together, more or less in their original contour.
On questioning an assistant, Benedictus learned that the flask had recently held a solution of cellulose nitrate, a liquid plastic, which had evaporated, apparently depositing a thin coating of plastic on the flask’s interior. Because the flask appeared cleaned, the assistant, in haste, had not washed it but returned it directly to the shelf.
Now this would not be tolerated in today’s super strict, safety conscious laboratories or at least I hope not. But always be on the lookout after a failure. Be open to the failure and the information it will give you. You might just invent something that will save millions of lives. Or it will, at the least, remind you to wash chemicals from beakers!
