十大改變世界的意外發明(上)

If the big bang theory is correct — the scientific postulate, not the TV show — then the universe and all life as we know it is one big happy accident. Ditto for evolution and natural selection. You could even argue that every man, woman and child on Earth is the result of the happy accident of their parents meeting and falling in love. Kind of a stretch, if you ask us. For our list of history's happiest accidents, we chose 10 unintentional discoveries that changed the world for the better – whether it was discovering beer or popsicles or Viagra. So before you beat yourself up for making mistakes, read how our list of stalwart scientists, explorers and nomadic goatherds turned potential fails into discoveries of a lifetime.

如果說“宇宙大爆炸理論”是正確的，那麼整個宇宙和所有的生命都可以算作是意外之喜。這裏的大爆炸指的是天體物理學關於宇宙起源的科學理論，可不是美劇《生活大爆炸》。物種進化論和自然選擇同樣算作意外之喜。甚至可以說地球上的每一個男人、女人和孩子都是他們的父母相遇相戀後，所帶來的意外之喜。關於這個話題，我們還可以談得更深刻一些。我們從史上意外發明中選了十個改變世界的意外發明故事，包括啤酒、冰棍兒、甚至偉哥。所以，當你再爲做錯事而自責的時候，看一看這些意志堅定的科學家、冒險家和牧羊人們是如何把可能失敗的事情變爲人生中最重要的發明的。

cillin

10.青黴素

Before penicillin — the world's first mass-produced antibiotic drug — millions of people died each year from infected wounds and contagious bacterial diseases like scarlet fever. In World War II, bottles of penicillin saved countless lives in battlefield hospitals. Today, we still rely heavily on antibiotics to treat everything from common ear infections to potentially deadly bacterial outbreaks. Yes, mankind owes a tremendous debt to Dr. Alexander Fleming and his marvelous mistake.

青黴素是世界上第一種實現量產的抗生素。在它問世之前，每年有數百萬人死於傷口感染和傳染性細菌疾病，如猩紅熱。二戰期間，在戰地醫院裏一瓶瓶青黴素挽救了無數傷員性命。現在，抗生素依然廣泛用於治療各種疾病，無論是常見的耳朵發炎，或是致命菌爆發引起的疾病，抗生素都在發揮重要作用。沒錯，人們應該感激亞歷山大·弗萊明博士以及他那偉大的錯誤。

Mistake? Absolutely. Scottish-born Dr. Fleming was in his lab in 1928 researching the flu virus when he noticed that one of his bacteria cultures was infected with a fungus. Most scientists would have tossed the spoiled petri dish in the trash, but not Fleming. Six years earlier, he had discovered the mild antibiotic properties of human tears when one of his own accidentally dripped into a bacterial sample. Even mistakes, Fleming learned, had scientific value.

錯誤？絕對是個錯誤。1928年，出生於蘇格蘭的弗萊明博士，正在實驗室中研究流感病毒時注意到，有個培養基被不明細菌污染。弗萊明沒有像大多數科學家那樣，把污染的培養皿直接扔掉，從而意外發現了抗生素。早在六年之前，他就發現人的鼻涕具有一定的抗菌性。因爲患重感冒的弗萊明仍堅持工作，鼻涕不小心滴入培養基中，這樣一個偶然的錯誤使得溶菌酶被發現。在弗萊明看來，即使錯誤也是具有科學研究價值的。通過進一步的觀察，弗萊明發現真菌邊緣有一道清晰的印記，這說明黴菌能夠很好地抑制葡萄球菌生長。他將這種真菌單獨保存起來進行研究，隨後把他新發明的特效藥命名爲“盤尼西林”（青黴素）。接下來所發生的一切，衆所周知，便是真菌的發展歷程。1945年弗萊明因此獲得諾貝爾生理或醫學獎。

nless Steel

9.不鏽鋼

For centuries, rust was the greatest enemy of everything made out of steel, from massive ships to humble household cutlery. By all rights, Harry Brearley should have been a hero when he accidentally discovered stainless steel in 1913. Instead, his short-sighted employer dismissed his invention as a colossal waste of time.

幾個世紀以來，不論是對大型輪船還是小小家常餐具來說，鏽蝕一直是所有鋼鐵製品的最大敵人。不管英國科學家亨利·布雷爾利在1913年發明的不鏽鋼是不是出於偶然，他都值得崇拜，但是目光短淺的僱主認爲他的發明純粹是浪費時間。

Born into poverty, Brearley began apprenticing at the steelworks of Thomas Firth and Sons in Sheffield, England when he was 12. By his early 30s, he was an expert in industrial chemistry and a lead researcher in his employer's laboratory. In 1912, his assignment was to develop a steel alloy — a custom blend of iron and other metals — that could withstand the superheated friction inside a rifle barrel. (The friction caused the gun barrel to get too big for the bullet.)The enemy here was erosion, not corrosion, but sometimes you find exactly what you aren't looking for. As he experimented, Brearley noticed that one of his discarded alloys was still shiny and bright, while the rest had rusted. Searching his notes, he found the precise formula for stainless or "rustless" steel – 12 percent chromium formed a protective layer on steel when exposed to oxygen. Brearley begged his bosses to manufacture cutlery using the miraculous new alloy, but they nixed the idea as unprofitable. A German firm beat Brearley to the patent, but he was eventually recognized as the original — if accidental — inventor of the most important metal of the 20th century.

布雷爾利出身貧困，12歲時就在位於英國謝爾菲德的福生鋼廠做學徒工。30剛出頭，他已是一名工業化學專家，同時也是他工作實驗室的首席研究員。1912年，布雷爾利受英國政府軍部兵工廠委託，進行武器研究的改進工作。那時，士兵用的步槍槍膛極易磨損。布雷爾利想發明一種耐磨損的，並且適於製造槍管的合金鋼，卻在無意中完成了另一項偉大的發明。他在實驗中，把鉻加入鋼中，但由於一些原因，實驗沒有成功。他只好失望地把製成品拋在實驗室外面的廢鐵堆裏。過了很長時間，奇怪的現象發生了：原來的廢鐵都鏽蝕了，僅有那幾塊含鉻的鋼仍舊是亮晶晶的。布雷爾利對此感到奇怪，翻看實驗記錄後發現，這種鉻含量爲12%的“不鏽鋼”，會在表面形成一層保護膜，避免在空氣中被氧化腐蝕。布雷爾利請他的老闆用這種神奇的合金鋼來批量生產餐具，卻因爲生產成本高利潤低遭到拒絕。儘管布雷爾利偶然發明不鏽鋼在先，但不鏽鋼的專利權卻被一家德國工廠搶先註冊，但是社會仍認爲他是20世紀最重要金屬的發明者。

Sea Scrolls

8.死海古卷

A stray goat led to the accident discovery of one of the most important literary finds in history.

偉大文學作品死海古卷的意外出土，完全歸功於一隻迷路的山羊。

In 1947, two Bedouin shepherds were trailing their flock through the scorched hills of Qumran near the Dead Sea when one man wandered off to chase down a stray. He discovered — and nearly fell into — a deep cave in the hillside. Dropping a stone into the blackness, he heard a pot shatter. Returning with his companion, they carefully lowered themselves into the cave and retrieved several sealed clay pots containing worn rolls of papyrus. Not knowing what they had found, the men sold the blackened scrolls to antiquities dealers in Jerusalem for a few dollars apiece. Eventually, a biblical scholar and historian from the Hebrew University recognized the text on the scrolls as early copies of books from the Hebrew Bible. When archaeologists and Bedouin explorers returned to the Qumran region, they discovered 10 more caves containing hundreds of full scrolls and fragments known collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, include the earliest-known copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible -- some 1,000 years older than other known works. Other scrolls contained previously unknown books and religious manuscripts that shed new light on religious beliefs in the Second Temple Period. The scrolls had been placed in the caves more than 2,000 years ago by a separatist Jewish group called the Essenes who lived and worshipped near the Dead Sea.

故事發生在1947年的一天，在死海附近的昆蘭山脈上，兩名貝都因牧羊人，正在已被烈日烤焦的山丘上找尋他們丟失的羊羣。就在一個牧羊人追趕其中一隻山羊時，他險些掉進山上一個深洞裏。他順勢向漆黑一片的洞內投了一塊石頭，隨之而來的則是瓦罐破碎之音，於是這個牧羊人召來了他的同伴，兩人一起進入洞中，帶走了一些密封陶罐，陶罐裏裝着幾捲紙莎草紙。因爲牧羊人並不知道這些卷軸是何物，他們便以每卷幾美元的低廉價格，將這些草紙賣給了耶路撒冷當地的一位古玩店老闆。後來，希伯來大學的一名《聖經》學者和一位歷史學家辨認出這些卷軸裏的真實內容，原來是一些《希伯來聖經》篇章的早期抄本。之後，考古學家與貝都因當地探險家再次探訪昆蘭山地區，他們又相繼發掘出10處的山洞，共藏有完整或殘缺不全的卷軸多達上百卷，這些卷軸統稱爲“死海卷軸”。死海卷軸經由三種文字撰寫而成，分別爲：希伯來語、阿納姆語和希臘語。既包含一些《希伯來聖經》書卷經文早期抄本，還包含一些比其他爲人熟知的文學作品早千年之久的文獻。其他卷軸，有的包含着以前不人所知的書籍抄本或宗教手稿。而在第二聖殿時期，依據這些書卷經文對宗教信仰進行了全新闡釋。這些卷軸是在2000多年前被存放在山洞裏的，而存放人則是一羣生活在死海附近的埃塞尼派猶太分離主義分子，他們也時常在死海附近做禮拜。

ra

7.偉哥

Until medical science invents a pill that makes men smarter, more attractive and filthy rich, Viagra will remain man's little blue best friend. Released to rave reviews in 1998, Viagra is still a huge moneymaker for drugmaker Pfizer, which reported more than $2 billion in sales in 2012 alone. Incredibly, Pfizer never set out to cure erectile dysfunction (ED). The invention of Viagra was a miraculous accident. Pfizer researchers were testing batches of a new angina (chest pain) medicine called UK-92480when subjects began reporting some unusual, er, stiffness. Further testing revealed that UK-92480 inhibited the production of an enzyme that undermined erections. Renamed Viagra, the revolutionary ED pill became the fastest-selling drug of all time and made a lot of men a whole lot happier.

除非醫療科技能研製出一種讓男人更有魅力，吸引力更強，而且非常富有的藥丸，不然偉哥這種小藍藥片就將一直是男人最好的夥伴。回顧1998年間人們對偉哥的好評，輝瑞藥業旗下的偉哥產品一直都處在吸金之巔，僅在2012年一年偉哥的銷售就賺得20億美元。讓人難以置信的是，治癒男性勃起功能障礙並非輝瑞藥業本意。偉哥的發明來自於一場不可思議的事件，輝瑞藥業的研發人員正在臨牀測試一種名爲UK-92480的新型藥物，據說它可以治癒心絞痛，但受測者服藥後反應並不正常——下體勃起。而隨後的持續驗證表明，UK-92480藥物能抑制機體產生對男性勃起有害的酶。偉哥的問世，立即成爲有史以來最暢銷的藥品，併爲衆多男同胞們創造了無限性趣。

ro

6.搭扣

In 1984, every kid in America had a pair of Reeboks with three sweet Velcro fasteners instead of lame laces. But decades before Velcro kicks became a full-blown fad, Swiss engineer George de Mestral took a fortuitous walk with his dog in the foothills of the Alps. Returning home, de Mestral noticed that his dog's fur was covered in prickly burrs.

1984年，每一名美國孩子的銳步跑鞋上，都有三顆帥氣的尼龍搭扣，取代了原來的金銀絲花邊。但是在維可牢“熱”引領時尚潮流的數十年前，它的發明還充滿着戲劇性。有一次瑞士工程師喬治·德·梅斯特拉牽着狗在阿爾卑斯山腳散步，他們回去後，德·梅斯特拉發現小狗的皮膚上覆蓋着毛刺。

Naturally curious, de Mestral examined the burrs under a microscope to see how nature pulled off this sticky trick. The culprits were tiny hooks on the surface of the burrs that attached to loops of fur on the dog's coat. De Mestral was an electrical engineer by trade, not a fashion designer, but he spent the next eight years researching and developing a clothing fastener based on his accidental discovery. De Mestral's first hook-and-loop prototype was made from cotton, then nylon. He named his product Velcro — a combination of "velvet" and "crochet" — and debuted the invention at a New York fashion show in 1959. The fashion industry ignored Velcro until the high-tech fastener caught the attention of NASA engineers. Adhesive-backed strips of Velcro were perfect for securing tools and toothbrushes in zero gravity. Shoemaker Puma was the first to put Velcro on sneakers in 1968, and you can find it on a plethora of objects today.

受好奇心的驅使，德·梅斯特拉把毛刺放在顯微鏡下觀察，他想看看大自然是如何造出這種帶黏性的小把戲的。原來毛刺表面的小鉤子纔是“罪魁禍首”，他們吸附在小狗外套上呈環狀。雖然德·梅斯特拉的職業是電子工程師，而不是時尚設計師，但是從那之後他花了八年時間，在他偶然的發現上繼續探索，開發新型衣服鈕釦。德·梅斯特拉鉤與環原型是純棉材質，後來改用尼龍。他給自己的產品命名爲“維可牢”——綜合“天鵝絨”和“鉤針”兩個單詞，並在1959年的紐約時裝週首次展出。剛開始時尚界對維可牢尼龍搭扣並不感冒，直到這種高科技搭扣引起了美國航空航天局工程師們的注意。維可牢製成的膠粘劑支持帶在真空環境下能完美地固定各種工具和牙刷。1968年彪馬公司最先把維克牢搭扣他們生產的膠底運動鞋上，而如今維克牢搭扣已經隨處可見。

審校：假微信 編輯：旭旭 來源:前十網