Did You Know?
Quinine’s effectiveness against malaria was discovered through a poisoning attempt.
According to legend, an Andean man tried to kill his wife with cinchona bark in a pool of water. Instead of dying, she was cured of malaria, leading to the discovery of quinine as a treatment for the disease.
Did You Know?
Teflon was discovered through a failed refrigeration experiment.
Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon when a frozen, compressed sample of tetrafluoroethylene spontaneously polymerized. This accident created one of...
Did You Know?
The artificial sweetener cyclamate was discovered when a lab worker smoked a cigarette.
In 1937, graduate student Michael Sveda put his cigarette down on the lab bench and noticed it tasted...
Did You Know?
The bacterial nature of ulcers was discovered when a desperate researcher drank bacteria.
Barry Marshall proved that bacteria cause ulcers by drinking a broth containing H. pylori bacteria, giving himself ulcers....