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.
如果说“宇宙大爆炸理论”是正确的，那么整个宇宙和所有的生命都可以算作是意外之喜。这里的大爆炸指的是天体物理学关于宇宙起源的科学理论，可不是美剧《生活大爆炸》。物种进化论和自然选择同样算作意外之喜。甚至可以说地球上的每一个男人、女人和孩子都是他们的父母相遇相恋后，所带来的意外之喜。关于这个话题，我们还可以谈得更深刻一些。我们从史上意外发明中选了十个改变世界的意外发明故事，包括啤酒、冰棍儿、甚至伟哥。所以，当你再为做错事而自责的时候，看一看这些意志坚定的科学家、冒险家和牧羊人们是如何把可能失败的事情变为人生中最重要的发明的。
10.青霉素
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.
青霉素是世界上第一种实现量产的抗生素。在它问世之前，每年有数百万人死于伤口感染和传染性细菌疾病，如猩红热。二战期间，在战地医院里一瓶瓶青霉素挽救了无数伤员性命。现在，抗生素依然广泛用于治疗各种疾病，无论是常见的耳朵发炎，或是致命菌爆发引起的疾病，抗生素都在发挥重要作用。没错，人们应该感激亚历山大·弗莱明博士以及他那伟大的错误。
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.
错误？绝对是个错误。1928年，出生于苏格兰的弗莱明博士，正在实验室中研究流感病毒时注意到，有个培养基被不明细菌污染。弗莱明没有像大多数科学家那样，把污染的培养皿直接扔掉，从而意外发现了抗生素。早在六年之前，他就发现人的鼻涕具有一定的抗菌性。因为患重感冒的弗莱明仍坚持工作，鼻涕不小心滴入培养基中，这样一个偶然的错误使得溶菌酶被发现。在弗莱明看来，即使错误也是具有科学研究价值的。通过进一步的观察，弗莱明发现真菌边缘有一道清晰的印记，这说明霉菌能够很好地抑制葡萄球菌生长。他将这种真菌单独保存起来进行研究，随后把他新发明的特效药命名为“盘尼西林”（青霉素）。接下来所发生的一切，众所周知，便是真菌的发展历程。1945年弗莱明因此获得诺贝尔生理或医学奖。
9.不锈钢
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.
几个世纪以来，不论是对大型轮船还是小小家常餐具来说，锈蚀一直是所有钢铁制品的最大敌人。不管英国科学家亨利·布雷尔利在1913年发明的不锈钢是不是出于偶然，他都值得崇拜，但是目光短浅的雇主认为他的发明纯粹是浪费时间。
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.
布雷尔利出身贫困，12岁时就在位于英国谢尔菲德的福生钢厂做学徒工。30刚出头，他已是一名工业化学专家，同时也是他工作实验室的首席研究员。1912年，布雷尔利受英国政府军部兵工厂委托，进行武器研究的改进工作。那时，士兵用的步枪枪膛极易磨损。布雷尔利想发明一种耐磨损的，并且适于制造枪管的合金钢，却在无意中完成了另一项伟大的发明。他在实验中，把铬加入钢中，但由于一些原因，实验没有成功。他只好失望地把制成品抛在实验室外面的废铁堆里。过了很长时间，奇怪的现象发生了：原来的废铁都锈蚀了，仅有那几块含铬的钢仍旧是亮晶晶的。布雷尔利对此感到奇怪，翻看实验记录后发现，这种铬含量为12%的“不锈钢”，会在表面形成一层保护膜，避免在空气中被氧化腐蚀。布雷尔利请他的老板用这种神奇的合金钢来批量生产餐具，却因为生产成本高利润低遭到拒绝。尽管布雷尔利偶然发明不锈钢在先，但不锈钢的专利权却被一家德国工厂抢先注册，但是社会仍认为他是20世纪最重要金属的发明者。
8.死海古卷
A stray goat led to the accident discovery of one of the most important literary finds in history.
伟大文学作品死海古卷的意外出土，完全归功于一只迷路的山羊。
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.
故事发生在1947年的一天，在死海附近的昆兰山脉上，两名贝都因牧羊人，正在已被烈日烤焦的山丘上找寻他们丢失的羊群。就在一个牧羊人追赶其中一只山羊时，他险些掉进山上一个深洞里。他顺势向漆黑一片的洞内投了一块石头，随之而来的则是瓦罐破碎之音，于是这个牧羊人召来了他的同伴，两人一起进入洞中，带走了一些密封陶罐，陶罐里装着几卷纸莎草纸。因为牧羊人并不知道这些卷轴是何物，他们便以每卷几美元的低廉价格，将这些草纸卖给了耶路撒冷当地的一位古玩店老板。后来，希伯来大学的一名《圣经》学者和一位历史学家辨认出这些卷轴里的真实内容，原来是一些《希伯来圣经》篇章的早期抄本。之后，考古学家与贝都因当地探险家再次探访昆兰山地区，他们又相继发掘出10处的山洞，共藏有完整或残缺不全的卷轴多达上百卷，这些卷轴统称为“死海卷轴”。死海卷轴经由三种文字撰写而成，分别为：希伯来语、阿纳姆语和希腊语。既包含一些《希伯来圣经》书卷经文早期抄本，还包含一些比其他为人熟知的文学作品早千年之久的文献。其他卷轴，有的包含着以前不人所知的书籍抄本或宗教手稿。而在第二圣殿时期，依据这些书卷经文对宗教信仰进行了全新阐释。这些卷轴是在2000多年前被存放在山洞里的，而存放人则是一群生活在死海附近的埃塞尼派犹太分离主义分子，他们也时常在死海附近做礼拜。
7.伟哥
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.
除非医疗科技能研制出一种让男人更有魅力，吸引力更强，而且非常富有的药丸，不然伟哥这种小蓝药片就将一直是男人最好的伙伴。回顾1998年间人们对伟哥的好评，辉瑞药业旗下的伟哥产品一直都处在吸金之巅，仅在2012年一年伟哥的销售就赚得20亿美元。让人难以置信的是，治愈男性勃起功能障碍并非辉瑞药业本意。伟哥的发明来自于一场不可思议的事件，辉瑞药业的研发人员正在临床测试一种名为UK-92480的新型药物，据说它可以治愈心绞痛，但受测者服药后反应并不正常——下体勃起。而随后的持续验证表明，UK-92480药物能抑制机体产生对男性勃起有害的酶。伟哥的问世，立即成为有史以来最畅销的药品，并为众多男同胞们创造了无限性趣。
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，每一名美国孩子的锐步跑鞋上，都有三颗帅气的尼龙搭扣，取代了原来的金银丝花边。但是在维可牢“热”引领时尚潮流的数十年前，它的发明还充满着戏剧性。有一次瑞士工程师乔治·德·梅斯特拉牵着狗在阿尔卑斯山脚散步，他们回去后，德·梅斯特拉发现小狗的皮肤上覆盖着毛刺。
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.
受好奇心的驱使，德·梅斯特拉把毛刺放在显微镜下观察，他想看看大自然是如何造出这种带黏性的小把戏的。原来毛刺表面的小钩子才是“罪魁祸首”，他们吸附在小狗外套上呈环状。虽然德·梅斯特拉的职业是电子工程师，而不是时尚设计师，但是从那之后他花了八年时间，在他偶然的发现上继续探索，开发新型衣服钮扣。德·梅斯特拉钩与环原型是纯棉材质，后来改用尼龙。他给自己的产品命名为“维可牢”——综合“天鹅绒”和“钩针”两个单词，并在1959年的纽约时装周首次展出。刚开始时尚界对维可牢尼龙搭扣并不感冒，直到这种高科技搭扣引起了美国航空航天局工程师们的注意。维可牢制成的胶粘剂支持带在真空环境下能完美地固定各种工具和牙刷。1968年彪马公司最先把维克牢搭扣他们生产的胶底运动鞋上，而如今维克牢搭扣已经随处可见。
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