10 Accidental Inventions That Changed The World

From plastic and potato chips to matches and microwaves, these strokes of scientific serendipity have had a big impact on our lives. 

 The course of human evolution has been punctuated by a long succession of chance discoveries and accidental inventions; and in fact, experts estimate that between 30 and 50 percent of of all scientific discoveries are in some way accidental. The ability to swiftly recognize the utility in something unexpected is one of the profound things that sets us apart from other animals. Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen; some serendipitous discoveries have spawned such staggering success that they’ve become a bit unwieldy. (Hello, plastic and antibiotics.) But whether banes or boons, the following accidental inventions from the past two centuries have changed the world in one way or another.