THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 3

What do the inventions of penicillin and the Post-It Note have to teach us about the role of serendipity in creativity?

Subject:  Creativity and Serendipity - Discovery of Penicillin

Event:  Biologist Alexander Fleming discovers the first antibiotic, 1928

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” but “That’s funny...” -Isaac Asimov 

Some people find it hard to get back to work after being away on a vacation.  The English biologist Alexander Fleming was not one of them.  When he returned to his laboratory on September 3, 1928, serendipity helped Fleming make a discovery that saved, and continues to save, millions of lives.

When Fleming returned from his tw0 week vacation, he discovered mold growing in some of his stacked cultures of bacteria.  Examining more closely, Fleming noticed that the growing fungus had destroyed some colonies of bacteria.  Thinking to himself, “That’s funny,” Fleming decided to use chance as a springboard and attempted to grow the mold in a pure culture.  The substance Fleming produced was originally called “mold juice,” but once he realized that it was an effective killer of disease-causing bacteria, he changed the name to penicillin.

It took work by two other scientists for Fleming’s discovery to see its full potential as a lifesaver.  Australian Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were able to mass-produce penicillin in large enough quantities that it could be used by medical staff to combat infections in soldiers during World War II.  Knighted in 1944, Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel in Medicine with Florey and Chain (2).

Image by Bruno from Pixabay

Not every serendipitous scientific discovery saves lives.  Some just make our lives a little more efficient.  One example is the invention of the Post-It Note, credited to Arthur Fry.  In 1973, Fry was working as a new product developer at 3M.  He attended a presentation by a colleague named Spencer Silver, who was working on strong adhesives.  Rather than report on one of his successes, Silver shared a failure:  a seemingly useless adhesive that only stuck lightly to surfaces rather than bonding as it should.  In other words, Silver had developed a glue that didn’t stick.

Fry forgot about Silver’s presentation until one day when he was practicing with his church choir.   To mark the pages of his hymnbook, Fry used slips of paper.  As he opened the hymnbook to mark a page, one of the slips of paper fell out, sparking Fry’s epiphany. Applying some of Silver’s adhesive to a slip of paper, Fry discovered that not only did the bookmark stay in place but it also could be removed without damaging the pages of the hymnbook.

Later, when he wrote some notes to his boss on his new invention, Fry realized it had more uses than just as a bookmark.  Post-it notes went on the market for the first time in 1980, and today Post-it notes and Post-it-related products are sold in over 100 countries worldwide (3).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How do the stories of the discovery of penicillin and the invention of the Post-it Note explain the role of serendipity in creativity?

Challenge - Serendipity and Science:  Research some other examples of how serendipity played a role in a discovery or an invention.  Then, pick the one you like the best, and explain how serendipity played a role. 

Also on This Day:

September 3, 1838:  Frederick Douglass, American orator, writer, and abolitionist, escaped from slavery.  Disguising himself as a sailor, Douglass boarded a train in Baltimore and rode it to his freedom in Philadelphia.  While still a slave, Frederick was desperate to learn how to read.  In his autobiography, he explains how he would always carry a book and some bread with him, hoping to persuade young white boys to give him lessons:  “This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.” 

September 3, 1939:  On this day King George VI gave a radio address, announcing to his subjects that England was going to war against Germany.  George VI unexpectedly ascended the crown in December 1936 when his brother Edward VII abdicated the throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.  A lifelong stutter, George VI worked for years with a speech therapist to speak more clearly.  The 2010 movie The King’s Speech gives a fictional account of the King’s work with an Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue.  When the big moment arrived to deliver the speech, King George VI rose to the occasion, speaking beautifully in what has become known as one of history’s most iconic speeches (4).

September 3, 1995:  eBay was founded on this day by Pierre Omidyar. The first item sold on the online auction site was a broken laser pointer, which sold for $14.83.  

Sources:  

1-Mecozzi, Valeria and Menno van Dijk. “SERENDIPITY” thnk.org 9 March 2017.

2-Sloane, Paul. Think Like an Innovator.  Pearson Education Limited, 2016:  216.

3-Horne, Richard and Tracey Turner.  101 Things You Wish You’d Invented …and Some You Wish No One Had.  New York:  Walker & Company, 2008.

4-Finn, Heather.  “The Incredible True Story of How King George VI Overcame His Stutter for His 1939 Speech.” Good Housekeeping  23 February 2020.