This is Morton Meyers' fascinating, entertaining, and highly accessible look at the surprising role serendipity played in some of the most important medical discoveries in the 20th century. Though within the scientific community a certain stigma is attached to chance discovery because it is wrongly seen as pure luck, happy accidents happen every day and Meyers shows how it takes intelligence, insight, and creativity to recognize a "Eureka! I found what I wasn't look for!" moment and know what to do next. Penicillin, chemotherapy drugs, X-rays, Valium, the Pap smear, and Viagra were all discovered accidentally, stumbled upon in search of something else. In discussing these medical breakthroughs and others, Dr. Meyers makes a cogent, highly engaging argument for a more creative, rather than purely linear, approach to science.
Discovery requires serendipity. But serendipity is not a chance event alone. It is a process in which a chance event is seized upon by a creative person who chooses to pay attention to the event, unravel its mystery, and find a proper application for it.
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