Inventions via grossness

It seems grossness is an excellent attribute to foster if you want to become a famous inventor. Here are four breakthroughs that happened largely because the people responsible were slobs.

Penicillin
In 1928, Scottish scientist and Nobel laureate, Alexander Fleming, returned from holidays and noticed that mould was growing in one of his dirty petri dishes. He realised that the area with the mould had no bacteria. This led him to discover that penicillin could be used to fight bacterial infections.

Note to self: don’t bother cleaning the fridge – mould is your friend.

Saccharin
Saccharin, the oldest artificial sweetener, was accidentally discovered in 1879 when researcher, Constantine Fahlberg  forgot to wash his hands before lunch. He had spilled a chemical on his hands and it caused the bread he ate to taste unusually sweet.

Another sweetener, cyclamate, was discovered by graduate student, Michael Sveda, when he smoked a cigarette accidentally contaminated with a compound he had recently synthesized.

Note to self: don’t wash your hands – and smoke your guts out.

Icy poles
Frank Epperson was just 11 in 1905 when he accidentally created the icy pole (or ‘popsicle’ as he called it). He left a mixture of powered soda and water out on his porch, leaving his stirring stick in the mixture, too. The next morning, after a record cold front. Epperson woke up to his mixture frozen on a stick.

Note to self: don’t clean up after yourself.

Corn flakes
In 1894, Seventh Day Adventists, Dr John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will accidentally left some boiled wheat out and it went stale. Rather than throwing it away, the brothers sent it through rollers, hoping to make long sheets of dough, but they got flakes instead. They toasted the flakes and fed them to the patients at their sanitarium (as you do). When they replicated the process with corn, corn flakes were born. So, there you go, next time you leave food out and it goes stale, consider the possibility of making a fortune before you chuck it out. Congealed egg balls, anyone? Dried cheese strips? Curdled milk globs?

Note to self: don’t put food away.