1. This wonderful word means the making of happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. It was invented by the writer and politician Horace Walpole in 1754 as an allusion to a country. This was based on a fairytale The Three Princes of _________ , the heroes of which ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of ’. The country’s name, though no more in use, comes from ancient Sanskrit and means ‘island where Lions dwell’. What word is this and what is the country known as now?
2. Born in Scotland on August 6, 1881, this gentleman can attribute his Nobel Prize to a happy accident. Who said this? “When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world’s first bacteria killer. But I suppose that was exactly what I did.” (See pic)
3. Roy Plunkett was a chemist who hoped to create a new variety of chlorofluorocarbons. Once after an experiment he found what was supposed to be a canister full of gas almost empty except for a few white flakes. Intrigued, Plunkett began at once to experiment with their properties. The new substance proved to be a fantastic lubricant with an extremely high melting point. What had he discovered that makes a daily task much easier?
4. Wilson Greatbatch was building an oscillator to record heart sounds when he pulled the wrong resistor out of a box. Instead of picking a 10,000-ohm resistor, he accidentally took the 1-megaohm variety. The resulting circuit produced a signal that sounded for 1.8 milliseconds, and then paused for a second and then gave off a rhythmic electrical pulse. This led to him patenting what life saving device?
5. George de Mestral, a life-long inventor, went for a walk in the forest with his dog. An Irish Pointer, its shaggy hair was covered with the prickly heads of a Burdock plant. Being a curious person, he decided to see how this looks under a microscope. What he saw led to a multi-million-dollar industry, with his invention becoming a world-wide success. What did de Mestral invent?
6. Pharmacist John Pemberton just wanted to cure headaches. His two main ingredients were the leaves and nuts from a plant from the Erythroxylaceae family (the species from which cocaine is made). When his lab assistant accidentally mixed the two with carbonated water, he ended up making made something which went on to become a multi-billion dollar empire. What had Pemberton’s assistant created?
7. In 1896, French scientist Henri Becquerel heard about Röntgen’s serendipitous discovery of X-Ray and started working on an experiment involving a uranium-enriched crystal. He believed that with the help of sunlight, the crystal would burn its image on a photographic plate. With dark clouds rolling in, Becquerel packed up his gear and decided to continue his research on another sunny day. Later, he retrieved the crystal from a darkened drawer, but the image burned on the plate was ‘fogged’. After further analysis with the help of a science super-couple he was awarded a Nobel Prize for enlightening us on what natural phenomenon?
8. In the late 1980s, scientists at a laboratory hypothesised that by selectively blocking an enzyme called phosphodiesterase type 5, they could relax the blood vessels of the heart and treat Angina Pectoris (spasms in the heart’s coronary arteries). The company developed a pill named UK92480 to help constrict these arteries to relieve pain. The pill failed its primary purpose, but the secondary side effect was startling. Initially patented and sold as as a cardiovascular drug, ‘Revatio’, it hardly made a presence in the market. The same drug was renamed and sold as the first oral drug for a completely different problem. This time the sales hit a billion dollars easily. What was this new drug they had accidentally discovered?
9. In 1827, English pharmacist John Walker was stirring a pot of chemicals that included antimony sulfide and potassium chlorate. He noticed this dried lump at the end of his mixing stick. To clean it, he tried to rub it against his hearth, but it burst into flames. What idea for an invention did this ignite in Walker’s head?
10. It was 1990 and James was in a hotel, touring with his band for their fourth album. Desperately missing his girlfriend he called her up while strumming his guitar. As they were talking, he absent-mindedly hit the open strings on his guitar in a sequence [6-3-2-1-2-3-6] which he quite liked. After the call, he wrote a song around the sequence about missing his girlfriend. When the rest of the band heard it, they knew it was a goldmine. Now, one of their most popular songs and one that everyone including the Quizmaster and his brother cover, the song is iconic in a genre not known for such songs! Which band does James sing in, (the band name also refers to the genre they usually perform!) and what is this plucky song?
Answers
1. Serendipity, Sri Lanka
2. Alexander Fleming on his discovery of Penicillin
3. Teflon – Non-stick cookware
4. Pacemaker
5. Velcro
6. Coca-Cola
7. Radioactivity
8. Viagra
9. Matchsticks that are struck to produce fire. [friction matchsticks]
10. Metallica—Nothing else matters
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
