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Explore a world of accidental discoveries that have changed history and made people millionaires in these two fascinating videos. Discover the stories behind these incredible finds and the unexpected twists of fate that led to their incredible outcomes.
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00:00In 1968, a chemist named Spencer Silver was working for a company.
00:05His task was to create a brand new adhesive that was strong and powerful.
00:09It should be much better than anything available at the time.
00:13After lots of experimenting, Spencer ended up with an adhesive that stuck but was also easy to remove.
00:20At that point, he probably felt like he failed.
00:23But little did he know that he was about to change the history of sticky notes forever.
00:28He made the post-it.
00:34Now, cornflakes were created by accident, too.
00:37Dr. Kellogg experimented with various grains.
00:40It's a bit murky when it comes to pinpointing the exact moment Kellogg's cornflakes were invented.
00:45Several family members and sanitarium employees claimed credit for the creation.
00:50According to company history, in 1898, a batch of wheat-based cereal dough was accidentally left out
00:57for an extended period.
00:59This caused the dough to ferment.
01:01It was then rolled out on thin sheets and baked.
01:04The slightly moldy dough produced large, thin flakes that were crispy and tasty.
01:09Over time, corn was found to produce even crunchier flakes compared to wheat.
01:14By 1909, Will's company produced 120,000 cornflake boxes daily.
01:23Some kitchen appliances were also created by chance.
01:27Percy Spencer was an engineer working on radar equipment.
01:30One ordinary day, when he was working, he happened to have a chocolate bar in his jacket pocket.
01:36At one point, it started melting.
01:38That got him thinking, could it be the microwaves coming from the radar's magnetron that caused this?
01:44To test his theory, he took some corn kernels and, one by one, watched them burst.
01:50In no time, Percy came up with the very first microwave oven, which was put on the market in 1946.
01:58It's amazing how a melted chocolate bar led to the invention of something that revolutionized cooking.
02:04In 1938, there was a chemist named Roy Plunkett.
02:07He was trying to develop a new kind of refrigerant.
02:10But something unexpected happened.
02:13While messing around with some gas, he noted that it turned into a waxy solid substance.
02:19That accident led to the creation of polytetrafluoriethylene, or what we now call Teflon.
02:25We thank him for the cooking pans in our kitchens.
02:28Yet, this material is actually used in various industries.
02:32I mean, it's even used as a protective coating on spacecraft.
02:38Another huge discovery was made in 1921.
02:41Two scientists managed to isolate insulin from the pancreas of a dog.
02:46This marked a turning point in the treatment of diabetes.
02:49This issue had been around for a very long time, over 3,000 years.
02:53The earliest record we have is in a papyrus manuscript from 1,500 BCE.
03:00Now, let's go back to insulin and the pancreas.
03:03In the 19th century, there was an experiment to remove the entire pancreas from a dog.
03:08Such dogs developed severe diabetes, just like humans.
03:12This was a surprise, because at the time, scientists thought the pancreas didn't have much to do with diabetes.
03:19Meanwhile, the world's first antibiotic also came about by pure accident.
03:24In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming returned from a vacation.
03:29He realized he forgot to clean one of the dishes he used in the lab.
03:34He found mold growing on that forgotten dish.
03:37It turned out that the mold had unintentionally contaminated the dish.
03:42When the scientists looked closer, he noticed that the area surrounding the mold was completely bacteria-free.
03:48He named his finding penicillin, after the fungus species Penicillium notatum.
03:53Today, penicillin stands as the world's most commonly used antibiotic.
04:01Now, a pharmacist named John Walker was conducting chemical experiments when he accidentally scraped a coated disc.
04:09To his surprise, the stick burst into flames.
04:12This sparked an idea in Walker.
04:14And in 1827, he began selling friction matches at his pharmacy.
04:19Walker's matches were cardboard sticks, coated in potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide.
04:25They would ignite when struck against sandpaper.
04:28Walker's invention quickly gained popularity, but he made an unusual choice.
04:33He didn't patent it.
04:35Consequently, others copied his design and started selling their versions.
04:39In time, they overshadowed his role as the original inventor.
04:43Sadly, when he was alive, he didn't receive recognition as the creator of the first friction match.
04:50Now, some accidental inventions can be as small as a matchbox, and others can be as large as a ship.
04:57In 1982, near Kash in southern Turkey, a sponge diver stumbled upon something incredible.
05:04It was an ancient shipwreck from the late 14th century BCE.
05:08He first discovered some objects and described them as metal biscuits with ears.
05:17Interestingly, experts later identified those as oxide ingots.
05:22This discovery got the archaeologists excited.
05:25They sent a team to investigate the wreck site further.
05:28Over the next decade, 11 expeditions took place, each lasting a few months.
05:33The divers completed over 22,000 dives during this time.
05:37They uncovered an extraordinary collection of artifacts from the late Bronze Age.
05:43The ship itself was about 33 feet long.
05:46The ship's most likely route was from Cyprus or Syria to Greece.
05:51Its mission was to deliver goods.
05:53Among the cargo, there were tons of copper and ingots, as well as gold and silver jewelry, tools, and various
06:00edible goods.
06:01Today, you can see the incredible artifacts from the shipwreck in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
06:08They've even reconstructed the ship.
06:13In 2017, something unusual happened in Portugal.
06:17A man discovered presumably the biggest sauropod dinosaur skeleton in all of Europe.
06:23He was working on some construction in his backyard.
06:26Then, he stumbled upon fragments of fossilized bones.
06:30A team of researchers got to work.
06:32It was rare to find such well-preserved bones of massive dinosaurs.
06:36They even found all the ribs still in their original anatomical positions.
06:41This dino was part of a species that roamed the Earth around 100 million years ago.
06:47There might be more parts of the dinosaur skeleton nearby.
06:50This means experts have to continue digging.
06:55Speaking of people who discover incredible stuff in their backyards, we should look at Derinkuyu.
07:01This place is in Turkey, Cappadocia.
07:04This place is known for its striking fairy chimneys and colorful hills.
07:08There's also a hidden city that remained concealed for centuries.
07:12This underground structure extends more than 279 feet below the surface.
07:17It boasts an intricate labyrinth of 18 levels of tunnels.
07:22It's the most extensively excavated subterranean city in the world.
07:26Its history is very rich, too.
07:29It changed hands from the Persians to the Byzantines.
07:32The city was a sanctuary for up to 20,000 people, providing shelter for extended periods.
07:39This astonishing discovery didn't happen until 1963.
07:42A local resident stumbled upon the place while searching for his lost chickens.
07:48When he renovated his house, his chickens kept vanishing in a newly formed gap.
07:53After a thorough look and some digging, the man uncovered a hidden tunnel.
07:58This was just the beginning.
08:00More than 600 similar entrances were discovered later.
08:04The Hittites were often credited with the construction of the oldest levels.
08:08Now it's believed that the Phrygians, skilled architects of the Iron Age, played a significant role in expanding the underground
08:15city.
08:19Lastly, there's a natural medication called quinine, which comes from the Chicona tree's bark.
08:25People have been using it to fight off malaria since the 1600s.
08:29A legend says that an indigenous man might have started using it even earlier.
08:34The story goes that a guy with a high fever got lost in the jungle.
08:38He had to drink water from a pond surrounded by quinaquina trees.
08:42He thought he was getting poisoned, but surprisingly, he got better.
08:47After that, his whole village started using quinaquina bark.
08:51Malaria is still a big deal today.
08:54People have been trying to make quinine in the lab because it's so useful.
08:57Back in 1820, some scientists figured out how to get quinine from the Chicona bark.
09:03Yet it took more than 100 years for chemists to get the exact chemical structure of quinine.
09:09This was a breakthrough in the world of chemistry.
09:14The most exciting accidental discovery I've made in my life was a $10 bill in my old winter jacket.
09:20Some folks are luckier, though, as they find underground cities from centuries ago
09:24or make inventions that turn them into millionaires.
09:27Velcro was invented after a routine walk in the woods.
09:31Kellogg's cornflakes were inspired by a chipped tooth.
09:34And Plato saved a business empire from falling by chance.
09:38Back in 1998, electrical engineer John Williams found something that looked like an electrical plug sticking out of the ground.
09:45He started digging and noticed that it was stuck in a small rock.
09:49He found it in a rural location in North America, far from civilization, industrial complexes, airports, factories, and electronic plants.
09:57This piece of electronics embedded into a solid granite stone got the nickname Enigma-Lith and a price tag of
10:03$500,000.
10:05Some scientists are sure it's a big hoax and not a souvenir left by some visitors from space, as Williams
10:11claims.
10:12But the finder of the rock wanted to prove that it was a real piece of ancient technology, some sort
10:17of an electrical connector.
10:18If it's not a hoax, then this little find could be proof that humans, or some other civilization from the
10:24past, were way more advanced than we ever thought.
10:27They must have managed to invent a way to transmit electricity long before humans in the 19th century.
10:33He offered scientists to take a look at this find and establish what it really is without breaking the rock
10:39open, but there were no takers.
10:41Williams consulted an engineer and a geologist, and both confirmed there were no traces of glue on the electronic component.
10:48It hasn't been welded either, so it must be as old as the rock, which is around 100,000 years
10:54old, according to geological analysis.
10:58Dr. John Kellogg had a philosophy of biological living with regular exercise, massage, plenty of water, zero bad habits, caffeine,
11:07and no meat.
11:08At the end of the 19th century, he looked over a health institute in Michigan.
11:12He once whipped up a mix of flour, oats, and cornmeal.
11:16He thought that by baking whole grains at high temps, they'd be easier on the stomach and healthier overall.
11:23He baked the mix twice and first made cookies, but a patient chipped a tooth on that version.
11:29Then he decided to break it into small pieces.
11:32It's hard to pinpoint exactly how Kellogg Corn Flakes came to be, with so many versions of the story floating
11:38around.
11:39Kellogg's wife, Ella, and his brother, Will, both claimed they played a role in creating the flakes, along with several
11:44other family members and sanitarium staff.
11:47The company lore says that it all went down one night in 1898, when some wheat-based cereal dough was
11:54left out too long, fermenting in the process.
11:57When rolled out thin, the slightly moldy dough turned into these perfect large thin flakes that got all crispy and
12:03yummy in the oven.
12:04Over the next few years, Will Kellogg kept tweaking the recipe and realized that corn, not wheat, made even crunchier,
12:12tastier flakes.
12:13His brand, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, has grown into a multi-billion dollar company.
12:18Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, once went for a walk with his dog and came back with a concept that
12:24would later go to space.
12:26Once they got back from the woods, de Mestral noticed that his pants and his dog's fur were covered in
12:31the tiny barbs of the cocklebur plant.
12:33He examined the burrs under the microscope and noticed that they were shaped like tiny hooks that stuck to loops
12:40on clothes and fur.
12:42He decided to recreate that natural tech to design an extra-strong fastener, one with many practical uses.
12:49He was testing different materials for his invention for so many years and finally settled on nylon.
12:56He also needed to design a special type of loom that could weave the fibers in the right size, shape,
13:03and density.
13:04It took de Mestral a total of 14 years until he introduced the world to Velcro, which means velvet and
13:10hook in French.
13:12De Mestral was hoping his invention would replace the zipper on clothes, but the fashion world found Velcro cheap-looking
13:18and unattractive.
13:20But NASA didn't think so, and used Velcro for astronauts' spacesuits and helmets in the 1960s.
13:26Now, Velcro is used everywhere, from footwear to toys to airline seat cushions.
13:34Before the middle of the 20th century, most homes were heated with coal.
13:38It left soot throughout the house, which was especially visible on wallpapers.
13:43Kutal Products was the largest company that sold wallpaper cleaner.
13:47But in the 50s, more and more people switched to gas, oil, and electricity, and the sooty build-up problem
13:52was mostly solved.
13:53The owner of Kutal Products was trying to save his business.
13:58Meanwhile, his sister-in-law read that wallpaper cleaner could be used to make holiday decorations.
14:04She worked as a nursery school teacher, and modeling clay was pretty hard for her students to handle.
14:09So, she decided to test this material for molding into different shapes, and it works out just fine.
14:14She told her relatives about the discovery, and suggested a name for it.
14:18Play-Doh!
14:19The Kutal Company was about to go bankrupt, so it was a great alternative for a new business.
14:25Soon enough, Macy's and Marshall Field got interested in the new toy, and started selling it.
14:31Play-Doh was originally only in one color, white, but soon expanded to red, blue, and yellow.
14:37They also made several changes to the original recipe, but the mixture is still mostly the same as when it
14:42was used to clean wallpapers.
14:44An urban legend says that if you take all the Play-Doh compound ever made and put it through their
14:49Fun Factory playset, you'll get a snake that will wrap around the planet 300 times.
14:56A man in Turkey was renovating his home when he knocked down a wall in his basement with a sledgehammer.
15:02He found a tunnel behind the wall that led to an ancient underground city.
15:06The tunnel led to more tunnels, and then halls and chambers.
15:10It turned out to be a whole underground complex with 18 stories, and without a single inhabitant abandoned a long
15:17time ago.
15:18It was the city of Derinkuyu, built thousands of years ago.
15:23A home for up to 20,000 people.
15:25Whoever built it had great skill, and it's rather easy to build tunnels out of the soft rock.
15:30But cavings are a big risk.
15:33None of the floors at Derinkuyu have ever collapsed.
15:36The city had a complex ventilation system with over 15,000 shafts.
15:40The upper levels had the best ventilation, and were used for living and sleeping quarters.
15:45The lower levels were mainly used for storage, but they also had a dungeon.
15:49In between, there were room for domestic animals, a school, a convent, and small churches.
15:58John Martin, a forestry professor, was out exploring a forest in Wisconsin one night.
16:03He was shining a UV flashlight up into the canopy to spot lichens, fungi, plants, and frogs that glow under
16:09the UV light.
16:11Then, suddenly, he heard a flying squirrel chirping at a bird feeder, pointed the flashlight at it, and saw it
16:17light up pink.
16:18The professor told his colleagues about it, and they decided to investigate further.
16:23They checked out some flying squirrel skins at museums to see if this pink glow is a common thing among
16:27them.
16:28It turns out that almost all of the flying squirrel specimens they looked at had the same pink fluorescence.
16:34Non-flying squirrels didn't glow at all.
16:37Other animals with fluorescence, like puffins and chameleons, glow blue under UV light.
16:42The only other mammals with fluorescent fur are around 20 species of opossum.
16:47They live in different ecosystems and have different diets.
16:51The only thing they have in common with flying squirrels is that they're all active at night.
16:56And regular squirrels prefer sunlight.
16:58There's enough ultraviolet light in low light conditions, and nocturnal animals need UV vision.
17:04So the pink glow might have to do with nighttime perception and navigation, especially in cold and snowy conditions.
17:11Or it could be a way for male flying squirrels to attract prospective mates.
17:15It could be a sort of mimicry.
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