那些偶然誕生的偉大發(fā)明

Louis Pasteur once said， “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Thats the truth behind all these accidental inventions—the scientists were prepared. They did their science on the brink and were able to see the magic in a mistake， set-back， or coincidence.

路易·巴斯德曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)：“機(jī)會(huì)垂青有準(zhǔn)備的人?！边@正是所有這些偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)背后蘊(yùn)藏的真理，而做出這些發(fā)現(xiàn)的科學(xué)家們就是那有準(zhǔn)備的人。他們的研究處于科學(xué)前沿，而且他們能夠從錯(cuò)誤、挫折或巧合中發(fā)現(xiàn)奇跡。

No.1 Penicillin1 青霉素

Alexander Fleming didnt clean up his workstation before going on vacation one day in 1928. When he came back， Fleming noticed that there was a strange fungus2 on some of his cultures3. Even stranger was that bacteria didnt seem to grow well near those cultures. The fungus became known as Penicillin. It became the first and is still one of the most widely used antibiotics4.

1928年的一天，亞歷山大·弗萊明在出發(fā)去度假之前忘了清理工作臺(tái)。度假歸來(lái)后，他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的一些培養(yǎng)基上長(zhǎng)出了一種奇怪的霉菌。更加奇怪的是，細(xì)菌似乎不易在這些培養(yǎng)基附近生長(zhǎng)。這種霉菌就是后來(lái)廣為人知的青霉素。青霉素是人類最早發(fā)現(xiàn)的抗生素，并且至今仍是使用最廣泛的抗生素之一。

No.2 Mauve 苯胺紫

In 1856， 18-year-old chemist William Perkin was trying to come up with an artificial quinine. Instead of a malaria5 treatment， his experiments produced a thick murky6 mess. But the more Perkin looked at it， the more he saw a beautiful color in his mess. Turns out he had made the first-ever synthetic7 dye.

His dye was far better than any dyes that came from nature； the color was brighter， clearer， and didnt fade or wash out. His discovery also turned chemistry into a money-generating science—making it attractive for a whole generation of curious-minded people.

But the story is not over yet. One of the people inspired by Perkins work was German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich， who used Perkins dyes to pioneer immunology8 and chemotherapy9.

1856年，18歲的藥劑師威廉·珀金正在嘗試人工合成奎寧（編注：一種抗瘧藥）。不過(guò)，他的實(shí)驗(yàn)得到的卻并不是治療瘧疾的藥物，而是一團(tuán)黑乎乎的黏稠物質(zhì)。但珀金越看越覺得這團(tuán)物質(zhì)中透著一種美麗的色澤。原來(lái)，他已經(jīng)制成了歷史上第一種人工合成染料。

這種染料遠(yuǎn)勝于任何一種天然染料，用它染出的顏色更為鮮亮、清晰，而且不會(huì)褪色，水洗也不掉色。他的這一發(fā)明還使化學(xué)成為一門 “錢”途光明的科學(xué)，吸引了整整一代富有好奇心的人們投身其中。

不過(guò)，事情并未到此結(jié)束。很多人受到了珀金研究的啟發(fā)，其中便有德國(guó)細(xì)菌學(xué)家保羅·埃爾利希，他利用珀金的染料開創(chuàng)了免疫學(xué)和化學(xué)療法。

No.3 Radioactivity 放射現(xiàn)象

Back in 1896， physicist Henri Becquerel was fascinated by two things： natural fluorescence10 and the newfangled11 X-ray. He ran a series of experiments to see if naturally fluorescent minerals produced X-rays after they had been left out in the sun.

There was one problem： he was doing these experiments in the winter， and there was one week with a long stretch of overcast skies. He left his equipment wrapped up together in a drawer and waited for a sunny day.

When he got back to work， Becquerel realized that the uranium12 rock he had left in the drawer had imprinted itself on a photographic plate13 without being exposed to sunlight first. There was something very special about that rock. Working with Marie and Pierre Curie， he discovered that that something was radioactivity.

1896年，物理學(xué)家亨利·貝克雷爾對(duì)兩個(gè)事物很著迷：一個(gè)是自然熒光現(xiàn)象，另一個(gè)就是新奇的X射線。他進(jìn)行了一系列實(shí)驗(yàn)，想看看有自然熒光屬性的礦物質(zhì)在經(jīng)過(guò)日照后能否產(chǎn)生X射線。

不過(guò)他遇到了一個(gè)問(wèn)題：他做這些實(shí)驗(yàn)時(shí)正值冬季，又趕上一周持續(xù)都是陰天。于是，他把實(shí)驗(yàn)器材全部打包在一起放進(jìn)了一個(gè)抽屜，等待晴天到來(lái)。

當(dāng)貝克雷爾再繼續(xù)這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)時(shí)，他發(fā)現(xiàn)被他放進(jìn)抽屜的鈾礦石在事先未經(jīng)日光照射的條件下就在攝影用的感光板上成像了。這塊礦石有些不尋常。貝克雷爾與居里夫婦瑪麗和皮埃爾共同進(jìn)行了研究，最終發(fā)現(xiàn)這種不尋常的現(xiàn)象正是放射現(xiàn)象。

No.4 Plastic 塑料

In 1907， shellac14 was used as insulation15 in electronics. It was costing the industry a lot of money to import shellac， which was made from Southeast Asian beetles， and at home chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might turn a profit if he could produce a shellac alternative16.

Instead his experiments produced a moldable material that could take high temperatures without distorting.

Baekeland thought his “Bakelite” might be used for phonograph records， but it was soon clear that the product had thousands of uses. Today plastic， which was derived from Bakelite， is used for everything from telephones to iconic movie punch lines17.

1907年，蟲膠被用作電子工業(yè)中的絕緣材料。由于蟲膠來(lái)源于東南亞的一種甲蟲，電子工業(yè)界為了進(jìn)口蟲膠所費(fèi)不貲，因此，國(guó)內(nèi)（編注：指美國(guó)）一位名叫利奧·亨德里克·貝克蘭的化學(xué)家就想，如果他能夠生產(chǎn)出蟲膠的替代品，就可能會(huì)獲得不菲的收益。

然而，他多次實(shí)驗(yàn)得到的卻是一種能耐高溫而不會(huì)變形的可塑性物質(zhì)。

貝克蘭原本以為他發(fā)明的這種“酚醛樹脂”可以用來(lái)制造唱片，但不久就發(fā)現(xiàn)這種物質(zhì)其實(shí)有無(wú)數(shù)種用途。如今，從電話機(jī)到經(jīng)典電影臺(tái)詞，都離不開這種從“酚醛樹脂”發(fā)展而來(lái)的塑料。

No.5 Teflon18 聚四氟乙烯

Back in the 1930s， CFCs19 were the hot new thing in the science of refrigeration. Young DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was working to make a new kind of CFC. He had a theory that if he could get a compound called TFE to react with hydrochloric acid20， he could produce the refrigerant21 he wanted.

So， to start his experiment Plunkett got a whole bunch of TFE gas， cooled it and pressured it in a container so it could be stored until he was ready to use it. When the time came to open the container and put the TFE and hydrochloric acid together so they could react， nothing came out of the container. The gas had disappeared.

Only it hadnt. Frustrated and angry， Plunkett took off the top of the container and shook it. Out came some fine white flakes. Luckily for everyone whos ever made an omelet22， he was intrigued by the flakes and handed them off to other scientists at DuPont.

在20世紀(jì)30年代，氟氯烴類化合物在制冷科學(xué)中可謂熱門的新生事物。當(dāng)時(shí)杜邦公司年輕的化學(xué)家羅伊·普倫基特正在嘗試合成一種新的氟氯烴。他的想法是，如果能得到一種叫做四氟乙烯的化合物，用它和鹽酸反應(yīng)，他就能制成自己想要的制冷劑。

于是，在實(shí)驗(yàn)準(zhǔn)備階段，普倫基特制備了大量四氟乙烯氣體，將其冷卻并加壓儲(chǔ)存于一個(gè)容器中以備使用。等到他想要開啟容器把四氟乙烯和鹽酸放在一起讓二者發(fā)生反應(yīng)時(shí)，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)容器里面空空如也。四氟乙烯氣體早已消失了。

實(shí)際上它并未消失。普倫基特在沮喪和憤怒之余打開了那個(gè)容器的蓋子，用力晃了晃。一些白色的小薄片從里面掉了出來(lái)。他對(duì)這些小薄片產(chǎn)生了興趣，并把它們拿給了杜邦公司的其他研究人員，這對(duì)所有做過(guò)煎蛋卷的人們可謂幸事（編注：不粘鍋上用的就是聚四氟乙烯涂料）。

注釋

1. penicillin n. 【藥】青霉素（又譯盤尼西林，一種抗生素）

2. fungus n. 【植】真菌；霉菌

3. culture n. （微生物、細(xì)胞組織等的）培養(yǎng)

4. antibiotic n. 【微】抗菌素，抗生素

5. malaria n. 【醫(yī)】瘧疾

6. murky adj. 污黑的；渾濁的

7. synthetic adj. 合成的；人造的

8. immunology n. 免疫學(xué)

9. chemotherapy n. 【醫(yī)】化學(xué)療法

10. fluorescence n. 熒光；熒光性

11. newfangled adj. 新奇的

12. uranium n. 【化】鈾

13. plate n. 【攝】感光板

14. shellac n. 蟲膠

15. insulation n. 【物】絕緣

16. alternative n. 供替代的選擇

17. punch line： （故事、戲劇、笑話等中的）妙句，關(guān)鍵語(yǔ)

18. Teflon： 【化】聚四氟乙烯，一種不粘性涂料

19. CFC：【化】含氟氯烴化合物

20. hydrochloric acid： 鹽酸

21. refrigerant n. 制冷劑，冷凍劑

22. omelet n. 煎蛋卷