1.青霉素的发现

The Principle of Limited Sloppiness is a phrase used to describe fortuitous or accidental discoveries (we're talking screwups) that actually helped humankind. The best-known example was by Alexander Fleming. Halfway through an experiment with bacteria, he up and went on vacation. Slob that he was, he left a dirty petri dish in the lab sink. When he got back, he found bacteria had grown all over the plate, except in an area where mold had formed. That discovery led to two things: 1) penicillin and 2) Mrs. Fleming hiring a maid.

所谓“有限马虎原则”指的是那些最后对人类有实在好处的偶然或意外的发现（实际这些发现一开始就是被搞砸了……）。最有名的例子来自亚历山大弗雷名，他把细菌试验做到一半就跑去度假了。而马虎如他，把一个脏培养皿丢在实验室的水池里。等他回来，他发现细菌已经长满了整个培养皿，除了一小块有霉菌的地方没有。这个发现导致了两个后果：1.青霉素的发明；2.弗雷名太太雇了一个女佣。

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2.白兰地的发明

Inventor: A Dutch shipmaster
Year: 16th century
What Happened: He used heat to concentrate wine in order to make it easier to transport, with the idea of adding water to reconstitute it when he arrived.
Big Discovery: Concentrated wine is better than watered-down wine.
As a result: "Burnt wine," or "brandewijn" in Dutch, became a big hit. Call it brandy, since after a few drinks of the stuff, there's no way you can pronounce brandewijn so a bartender can understand what you're ordering.

发明者：一个荷兰船长
时间：16世纪
事情发生的经过：为了让红酒更方便运输，船长加热红酒使其浓缩，到了目的地之后再加水稀释它。
大发现：浓缩后的红酒比用水稀释的好喝（这不废话……）
结果：在荷兰，“烧着的红酒”或者“brandewijn”变的大受欢迎。而几杯酒下肚之后，很明显你就发不清“brandewijn”这种音。所以为了让酒吧吧员知道你在点什么，人们简称这种酒为“brandy”,也就是如今大名鼎鼎的白兰地。

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3.麻醉剂的发明

Inventor:  Horace Wells
Year: 1844
What Happened: In its salad days, nitrous oxide was strictly a party toy, since it made people howl like hyena. But a friend of the dentist took too much of the stuff at a laughing-gas stage show and gashed his leg.
Big Discovery: The friend hadn't realized he'd hurt himself.
As a result: Nitrous oxide became an early form of anesthesia.

发明者：豪斯威尔
时间：1844年
事情发生的经过：在一氧化氮（又称笑气）使用初期，它是标准的派对玩意儿。因为人们吸了它就会像土狼一样乱嚎。直到某次，一个牙医的朋友吸了太多，而他划伤了自己的脚。
大发现：这位脚受伤的仁兄根本不觉得痛。
结果：笑气因而变成麻醉剂的早期形式。

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4.糖精的发现

Inventors: Constantin Fahlberg and Ira Remsen
Year: 1879
What Happened: After spending the day studying coal tar derivatives, Fahlberg left his Johns Hopkins laboratory and went to dinner.
Big Discovery: Something he ate tasted particularly sweet, which he traced to a chemical compound he'd spilled on his hand. Best of all, it turned out to be calorie-free.
As a result: He cut Remsen and the university out of millions of dollars when he secretly patented the breakthrough discovery, saccharin.

发明者：康斯坦丁法堡和伊拉雷森
时间：1879年
事情发生的经过：在研究了一整天的煤矿衍生物之后，法堡离开他约翰霍金大学的实验室回家吃晚饭。
大发现：他吃到了某种特别甜的东西（明显不是晚饭本身），于是他追溯到了自己手上沾到的某种化学成分（沪江小编注：糖精，从煤焦油中提取的物质。）而且最棒的是，这种糖精完全没有热量。
结果：法堡摒弃了伊拉（指导他完成论文的导师）和所在大学，偷偷申请了糖精的专利……

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5.橡皮泥的发明

Inventor:  James Wright
Year: 1943
What Happened: During the war years, the General Electric engineer combined silicone oil and boric acid in an attempt to find a cheap alternative to rubber for tank treads, boots, etc.
Big Discovery: It didn't work. But the scientists had a blast bouncing and stretching his mistake, when they weren't using it to transfer comics onto paper.
As a result: Kids had a blast playing with the Silly Putty too.

发明者：詹姆斯怀特
时间：1943年
事情发生的经过：在战时，通用的工程师将硅油和硼酸混合、试图制造出能用于坦克、靴子的橡胶。
大发现：他的尝试没有成功，但科学家们重新设计和延伸了这项发明。
结果：孩子们开始普遍地玩橡皮泥。

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6.口香糖的发明

Inventor: Thomas Adams
Year: 1870
What Happened: He was experimenting with chicle, the sap from a South American tree, as a substitute for rubber. After mounting failures, the dejected inventor popped a piece into his mouth.
Big Discovery: He liked it!
As a result: Adams New York No. 1 became the first mass-produced chewing gum in the world. 口香糖

发明者：汤马斯亚当
时间：1870年
事情发生的经过：他在用chicle，一种南美洲的树液做实验，以寻找橡胶的替代物。在无数次失败后，这个郁闷的发明家干脆丢了一块到嘴里！
大发现：他居然喜欢！
结果：亚当纽约一号成为了世界上第一个大批量生产的口香糖！

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7.微波炉的发明

Inventor: Percy Spencer
Year: 1946
What Happened: With the end of World War II, the Raytheon engineer was looking for other uses for the magnetron, which generated the microwaves for radar systems. While Spencer was standing next to the device one day, a chocolate bar in his pocket melted.
Big Discovery: The magnetron worked even better on popcorn.
As a result: Orville Redenbacher became very rich.

发明者：帕西斯宾塞
时间：1946年
事情发生的经过：二战结束之际，雷声公司的工程师想为磁控管寻找新买家。磁控管在二战中用以给雷达系统提供微电波。当斯宾塞某天站在设备旁，他发现他口袋里的一条巧克力融化了。
大发现：磁控管被用以制造微波炉，用它来做爆米花效果更好！
结果：Orville Redenbacher（美国著名爆米花品牌）变得很富有！

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8.合成染料的发明

Inventor: William Perkin
Year: 1856
What Happened: He was intent on discovering a cure for one of the deadliest diseases in the world, malaria.
Big Discovery: While trying to replicate the malaria fighter quinine in his laboratory, Perkin inadvertently discovered the color mauve instead.
As a result: Perkin forgot about malaria and made a mint establishing the synthetic dye industry.

发明者：威廉帕金
时间：1856年
事情发生的经过：他本来是试图制造疟疾药奎宁的……
大发现：当他把制造奎宁的原料放入反应锅中，竟意外地发现了一种淡紫色（沪江小编：世界上第一种人工合成、非天然的颜色）。
结果：帕金由此忘记了疟疾，转而发展合成染料工业。

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9.肉毒杆菌在美容上的应用

Inventors: Alastair and Jean Carruthers
Year: 1987
What Happened: The couple were using small doses of a deadly toxin to treat "crossed eyes" eyelid spasms and other eye-muscle disorders when they noticed an interesting side effect.
Big Discovery: Wrinkles magically disappeared.
As a result: The expressionless face became the "it" look, thanks to Botox.

发明者：卡卢瑟夫妇
时间：1987年
事情发生的经过：这对夫妻本来是小剂量地使用这种致命毒素（肉毒杆菌）来治疗斗鸡眼和其他眼部肌肉疾病的，而他们却发现了药物的一些副作用。
大发现：副作用就是，眼部周围的皱纹都奇迹般的消失了！
 结果：肉毒杆菌被大量运用于美容界，虽然注射之后会导致整张脸僵硬！

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10.伟哥的发明

Inventors: Scientists at Pfizer
Year: 1992
What Happened: A Welsh hamlet was ground zero for a test on a pill to fight angina. Unfortunately for the afflicted, it had little success against the disease.
Big Discovery: Though it didn't work, the men taking part in the study refused to give up their medicine.
As a result: The scientists switched gears and marketed the drug, Viagra, for a very different purpose.

发明者：Pfizer公司的科学家们
时间：1992年
事情发生的经过：为寻找治疗心绞痛的解药，一个威尔士小村庄被夷为平地。尽管损失巨大，科学研究却没有取得任何进展。
大发现：尽管没有成功，参与研究的人员却拒绝放弃他们的药。
 结果：科学家们把研究转向，终于把名为Viagra（中文名称艾万可，不用明说了吧……）投入市场，而目的却与刚开始大相径庭。

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