Discovery
An 1830 engraving of Sir Humphry Davy, by G. R. Newton.
January 11, 2011 | Michal Meyer
I was recently asked to talk about discovery in science, which means I need to figure out what I actually believe about discovery, especially “chance” discovery. Can something truly be discovered by chance? And what does discovering something actually mean? I had no idea, so I decided to take a step back and start with the relationship between scientists and the natural world.
To do their job scientists must have a basic sense of curiosity about the material world. But being curious is not enough; the curiosity must drive a conversation with the natural world. The scientist begins by asking a question and then “listens” to the natural world’s response.
How do you sense what nature is telling you? Historically, people used the senses of smell, taste, touch, hearing, and vision. Self experimentation has a long, long history. In the days before sophisticated instruments existed, all you had to offer for testing was yourself or animals (though they can’t talk about what they experience). One of the greatest self-experimenters was Humphry Davy, who tested many newly discovered gases on himself, including laughing gas and carbon monoxide. The laughing gas he found amazing; the carbon monoxide almost killed him.
Now we have machines that can do some of the sensing for us, but scientists still need to take part in that conversation and listen. Discoverers pay attention to what nature is telling them. And sometimes that conversation takes unexpected turns. I think this is what is meant by chance discovery, that a scientist is willing to change the subject of the conversation. A good example might be William Henry Perkin, who discovered the first synthetic dye in 1856. He wanted to synthesize quinine, a medicine for malaria, and failed. Instead of throwing out the experiment he decided to continue listening to what the natural world was telling him. Eventually, his eyes told him that he had discovered something purple.
And what about chloroform? The molecule was synthesized by three different people in the 1830s, but no one thought to use it as an anesthetic until 1847, when a Scottish doctor on a quest for a new anesthetic decided to “road test” various substances on himself and his friends. Who gets to be the real discoverer there?
The world may be speaking, but if there’s no curious listener, there’s no discovery.