Download Section 1.4

Section 1.4
Scientific Research
Types of Scientific Investigations
• Pure Research
– Gain knowledge for the sake of knowledge
itself
• Applied Research
– Undertaken to solve a specific problem
Chance Discoveries
• Planned research can result in unexpected
conclusions
• Always look for chance discoveries!
Examples of Chance Discoveries
•
Nylon
– The discovery of Nylon, like so many other things, was almost entirely by pure
chance. Nylon itself is a synthetic material with a structure very similar to silk.
The discovery was made by a team of chemists working for the Du Pont
company under the supervision of Wallace Hume Carothers. The team of
chemists had been working to create a synthetic product much like silk, cellulose
or rubber and eventually stumbled upon what they called Nylon. After it's
discovery, Nylon would eventually become the single most important product that
the Du Pont company had ever put on the market.
•
Penicillin
– Alexander Fleming was a young bacteriologist at St. Mary's Hospital in London in
1928. One day in his cluttered laboratory, he noticed that a culture dish of
bacteria had been invaded by a mold whose spore must have drifted in through
an open window. Under the microscope, he saw that, all around the mold, the
individual bacteria that he had been growing had burst. He saved the mold, and
from it produced the first penicillin.
• Vaccines
– In 1879, Louis Pasteur inoculated some chickens with cholera bacteria.
It was supposed to kill them, but Pasteur or one of his assistants had
accidentally used a culture from an old jar and the chickens merely got
sick and recovered. Later, Pasteur inoculated them again with a fresh
culture that he knew to be virulent, and the chickens didn't even get
sick. Chance had led him to discover the principle of vaccination for
disease prevention.
• Neurophysiology
– In 1791 Luigi Galvani was an anatomist at the University of Bologna.
Galvani was investigating the nerves in frog legs, and had threaded
some legs on copper wire hanging from a balcony in such a way that a
puff of wind caused the legs to touch the iron railing. A spark snapped
and the legs jerked violently (even today, we speak of being
"galvanized" into action). In one unintended step, Galvani had observed
a closed electrical circuit, and related electricity to nerve impulses.
•
X-Rays
– Wilhelm Roentgen was experimenting with electrical discharges one evening at
the University of Wurzburg in 1895. There was a screen coated with a barium
compound lying to one side, and Roentgen noticed that it would fluoresce when
an electrical discharge would occur in the tube he was watching. On reaching for
the screen, Roentgen got his hand between the discharge tube and the screen
and saw the bones of his own hand through the shadow of his skin. In 1901,
Roentgen received the Nobel prize for his accidental discovery of X-rays.
•
Velcro
– Chance played a part when the Swiss engineer George de Mestral conceived the
idea for Velcro in 1948. After returning from a walk he found seed pods sticking
to his socks and to his dog. When he examined the pods under a microscope he
saw how tiny hooks had caught in the loops of the wool (Figure 46). He
developed a method of reproducing the hooks and loops in woven nylon for use
in clothing instead of buttons and zips (Figure 47). He called the product Velcro
from a combination of velours (velvet) and crochet (hook), and the product went
on to have many other uses including medicine (for joining the chambers of an
artificial heart) and the space programme (for securing objects in a weightless
environment).
• Botox
– Jean Carruthers, a Canadian ophthalmologist, was treating a patient in
1987 for a rare eye disorder known as blepharospasm. The off-the-wall
ailment causes excessive blinking of the eyes and, in some, makes the
eyelids to slam shut. Dr. Carruthers treated the woman with Botox, a
then largely unknown substance which reduces activity in overactive
muscles by blocking nerve impulses. It was a seemingly unlikely use of
the botulinium toxin, which in purest form, is the deadliest known to
science. However, tiny amounts worked well to halt the patient’s
debilitating eye disorder. But, even with no symptoms, the patient kept
coming back to Dr. Carruthers’ office, telling the doctor that each time
she received a Botox injection, the wrinkles between her brows seemed
to disappear, leaving a relaxed, untroubled expression on her face. The
patient actually thought she looked younger. Because Jean’s husband,
Alastair, is a dermatologist, he found the story of the blepharospasm
patient intriguing and looked further into how Botox could be used to
enhance people’s appearance.