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The Accidental Scientist: The Role of Chance and Luck in Scientific Discovery
Have you ever wondered how the ideas for some things come about? Surprisingly often it is as much down to chance as a single person's brilliance. The Accidental Scientist explores the role of chance and error in scientific, medical and commercial innovation, outlining exactly how some of the most well-known products, gadgets and useful gizmos came to be. From the jacuzzi to jeans and TNT to Tipp-Ex, this book explores many of the discoveries that we are all so familiar with today, yet have the most interesting origins because of the story behind them. Not all discoveries require brilliance, and as The Accidental Scientist demonstrates, sometimes a special ingredient is needed: luck.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 3, 2013
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258 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
January 21, 2023
Это, ну, сборник анекдотов и чистое развлекалово без какой-либо общей мысли (и иногда наоборот с неуемным стремлением причесать вполне нормальный исследовательский процесс под "случайность").
И одной стороны, это заменитель реддит-треда на такую же тематику, и я видел реддит-треды, написанные менее сумбурно.
Но с другой — здесь прилично вещей, которых я ранее не знал (фактоидов; не то чтоб эти знания несли какую-то ценность, но).
И одной стороны, это заменитель реддит-треда на такую же тематику, и я видел реддит-треды, написанные менее сумбурно.
Но с другой — здесь прилично вещей, которых я ранее не знал (фактоидов; не то чтоб эти знания несли какую-то ценность, но).
January 16, 2022
Another casual read. Almost all discoveries are "accidents" if you discount the years of perseverance. This book is a assortment of scientific discoveries.
On the plus side, it is written in an engaging fashion so you won't be bored but be prepared for back to back trivia.
On the plus side, it is written in an engaging fashion so you won't be bored but be prepared for back to back trivia.
February 12, 2021
Really interesting accounts and inside stories of discoveries. Well researched.
May 4, 2019
This was a relatively short book about a bunch of scientific inventions of products / items which are commonplace today, and describes how their discoveries were not as planned as the average reader may think. I received this book as a Secret Santa gift – and was impressed by the ability of my gifter in finding a book that I had not heard of given that I scour bookstores in my free time – and was looking forward to reading it but unfortunately came away feeling slightly disappointed. While the topics he chose were interesting, and the backstory of the chosen examples made amusing reads, I didn’t really like the language as it felt a bit inside jokey to me. Donald makes use of nicknames and specific lingo which I’m not familiar with and had to look up, and I thought that took away the fun of reading this. I’ve got nothing against having to look something up – that’s one of the reasons I read – but it wasn’t appropriate for a book of this topic. That additional research I undertook also revealed that some of the points that Donald presents with conviction aren’t quite as black-and-white as he implies, which can be misleading at times. Felt a bit like this one tried to have one leg on each boat of being informative and educational and failed at both. 3 stars.
November 1, 2023
In part horrific, and in part humorous, we hear of a list of accidental discoveries with a few incidents of downright dishonesty. A surprising number of discoveries involved explosives, often with alarmingly tragic consequences.
Some of the incidents involve so much luck that they begin to seem to verge on the miraculous. Take Charles Darwin’s discovery of Natural Selection. He was invited to the Beagle as a ‘companion’ not as a Scientist, because the captain’s predecessor committed suicide and the captain was afraid of loneliness driving him the same way. Getting from invitation to acceptance involved a set of further coincidences and Darwin still only narrowly avoided rejection, due to the shape of his nose.
On the voyage Darwin showed remarkably little interest in wildlife, as it was geology that was his passion. Upon being introduced to the Galapagos turtles, which all had slightly different shells (depending on which island they had come from), Darwin’s response was to eat them for dinner, and then discard the evidence of Natural Selection over-board. Even his famous work on the Finches only occurred when he was back in England and could get his hands on other people’s carefully collected evidence. His own evidence had been gathered too carelessly and he couldn’t work out which bits came from which islands. With a background like that, the eventual publication of the Origin of Species begins to look like a most astonishing piece of luck.
The book’s narration makes its stories interesting and even humorous, but is its focus on luck at risk of actually making the book seem to belittle science? What was missing from the book was a thoughtful analysis of what we mean by ‘luck.’
For example, expert golfers can get lucky and hit a hole in one. But they are far more likely to get lucky, the more they practice. Practice driven luck, seems to be a very different type of luck to the person who gets hit by lightning, where that outcome might have absolutely nothing to do with anything that the person has done previously.
If there are indeed different types of luck, and some luck depends upon prior professionalism, then the book needs to make that clear, and to explain which types of luck are involved in the incidents it portrays. Otherwise, there is a risk that the book ends up conveying a misleading impression of Scientific methodology, by suggesting that it is sometimes no better than random luck. In an age where Science and rationality are increasingly under assault from exotic conspiracy theories, I think the book could have done better to provide more nuance in its explanation of how luck is involved in Science.
Overall the book is an enjoyable read and requires no particular expertise to appreciate it.
These are comments on the 2013 edition, accessed digitally in October 2023.
Some of the incidents involve so much luck that they begin to seem to verge on the miraculous. Take Charles Darwin’s discovery of Natural Selection. He was invited to the Beagle as a ‘companion’ not as a Scientist, because the captain’s predecessor committed suicide and the captain was afraid of loneliness driving him the same way. Getting from invitation to acceptance involved a set of further coincidences and Darwin still only narrowly avoided rejection, due to the shape of his nose.
On the voyage Darwin showed remarkably little interest in wildlife, as it was geology that was his passion. Upon being introduced to the Galapagos turtles, which all had slightly different shells (depending on which island they had come from), Darwin’s response was to eat them for dinner, and then discard the evidence of Natural Selection over-board. Even his famous work on the Finches only occurred when he was back in England and could get his hands on other people’s carefully collected evidence. His own evidence had been gathered too carelessly and he couldn’t work out which bits came from which islands. With a background like that, the eventual publication of the Origin of Species begins to look like a most astonishing piece of luck.
The book’s narration makes its stories interesting and even humorous, but is its focus on luck at risk of actually making the book seem to belittle science? What was missing from the book was a thoughtful analysis of what we mean by ‘luck.’
For example, expert golfers can get lucky and hit a hole in one. But they are far more likely to get lucky, the more they practice. Practice driven luck, seems to be a very different type of luck to the person who gets hit by lightning, where that outcome might have absolutely nothing to do with anything that the person has done previously.
If there are indeed different types of luck, and some luck depends upon prior professionalism, then the book needs to make that clear, and to explain which types of luck are involved in the incidents it portrays. Otherwise, there is a risk that the book ends up conveying a misleading impression of Scientific methodology, by suggesting that it is sometimes no better than random luck. In an age where Science and rationality are increasingly under assault from exotic conspiracy theories, I think the book could have done better to provide more nuance in its explanation of how luck is involved in Science.
Overall the book is an enjoyable read and requires no particular expertise to appreciate it.
These are comments on the 2013 edition, accessed digitally in October 2023.
February 9, 2018
This was a Christmas gift from my momma, and I'm glad she found it. My background in science probably contributed to the experience, however, one does not need such a background to understand and enjoy The Accidental Scientist. Every new chapter is a new scientific discovery broken down by the unintentional and sometimes humorous events leading up to it!
Thumbs up for: Conciseness, writing style, and balancing humor. Donald crafts a 'matter-of-fact' presentation of events in an easy-to-grasp format. I also enjoyed how I could start a chapter without needing to precisely remember the last. The topics are also relevant enough to apply in everyday discussion (to a moderated degree).
Thumbs meh for: Placement and chronology. Some discoveries were more interesting than others. I would've liked to see more popular ones staggered rather than one right after the other, followed by 2 or 3 lesser-known discoveries.
Thumbs up for: Conciseness, writing style, and balancing humor. Donald crafts a 'matter-of-fact' presentation of events in an easy-to-grasp format. I also enjoyed how I could start a chapter without needing to precisely remember the last. The topics are also relevant enough to apply in everyday discussion (to a moderated degree).
Thumbs meh for: Placement and chronology. Some discoveries were more interesting than others. I would've liked to see more popular ones staggered rather than one right after the other, followed by 2 or 3 lesser-known discoveries.
February 2, 2018
This is a rather short, but interesting, book that takes a look at the history behind various scientific discoveries and inventions. All of the topics were chosen because chance or luck were involved in their discovery/invention. Each chapter is a separate unit that covers a particular topic, such as botox, explosive cellulose, synthetic dyes, penicillin, post-it notes, lobotomies, the cellphone, LSD etc. This book isn't in-depth science or history but is entertaining and informative without being boring. The writing style is particularly conversational and witty.
December 28, 2018
Really fun and easy to read. Each chapter is devoted to an invention born of serendipity. I enjoyed the book but unfortunately it is another stark reminder that much of success is down to sheer dumb luck.
January 1, 2019
Lots of fun facts and anecdotes about the discovery/invention of lots of products. I really enjoyed this and would definitely consider reading more of Graeme Donald's books, which seem to have similar themes.
May 17, 2019
Would have been nicer if the author had a couple of pages at the end on his reflections about all the accidental discoveries and also focusing briefly on what proportion of discoveries/breakthroughs considered important for a particular time period have been accidental.
November 26, 2022
I found this book genuinely really interesting and I learnt a lot. I personally didn't like how it became more informal and seemingly more biased as the book went on, and some of the puns were... not really good, but overall I enjoyed 🙂
August 20, 2025
A fun (yet sometimes grim) and light read. I would definitely recommend this as a beach read. A downside to this book would be the numerous fun facts that literally do not contribute to the message of the chapters presented.
October 16, 2017
Very interesting. I wanted more!
March 29, 2018
I would have liked longer more cohesive stories about each discovery. The format makes this a great bathroom reader type of book.
May 19, 2018
Entertaining, but sometimes presents controversial ideas as if they are established fact.
July 25, 2019
Strays a bit from accidental discoveries into what feels like conspiracy theories but interesting information. Short pieces that make you want to discover more.
July 26, 2019
Quick and easy read with a lot of fun and interesting information.
January 14, 2020
a must read for the would-be inventor too
April 16, 2020
I enjoyed this, but it's very short.
May 10, 2021
Fun book with lots of facts.
May 15, 2021
Science starts at accident. Graeme Donald knows how to tell an interesting fact in the simplest way possible. I really enjoyed this book.
December 17, 2022
Weird book... but fun and interesting. Bit too quick paced though in my opinion.
March 2, 2024
cool idea but couldn’t get through it it was just kinda boring. i liked learning that a lot of these things were stumbled upon though thats so cool maybe ill stumble upon something
December 28, 2024
fun read, very informative and interesting. had to lock in and get it done to complete the year challenge.
January 21, 2025
Highly informative book explains lots of the work that goes into new discoveries. For humans and other uses
July 18, 2025
Quick read, sounded intriguing but didn’t catch my attention.
August 27, 2025
Nothing I didn’t know already maybe I just listen to too much sciguys
September 1, 2025
4/5 stars. It gives short introduction to different topics
September 26, 2017
Review is now live on my blog!
Overall I thought that this was a great non-fiction book. It kept me interested the whole way through and didn't get boring like some non-fiction books can due to the lack of plot. It required zero scientific knowledge going in which is also another problem I've had with quite a few scientific non-fiction books!
It would be perfect for someone who enjoys QI, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who’s wanting to dive in to an easy-to-read non-fiction scientific book!
Overall I thought that this was a great non-fiction book. It kept me interested the whole way through and didn't get boring like some non-fiction books can due to the lack of plot. It required zero scientific knowledge going in which is also another problem I've had with quite a few scientific non-fiction books!
It would be perfect for someone who enjoys QI, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who’s wanting to dive in to an easy-to-read non-fiction scientific book!
September 3, 2024
It was just okay. Most of the topics discussed weren't interesting for me but that could just be me. Other people might enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews