When a glass flask was knocked to the floor in Eduard Benedictus' laboratory he was surprised to discover that the glass had shattered but somehow the flask stayed together. It was all the result of his assistant failing to clean away the remains of the previous experiment. Reading about a rash of car accidents gave him the inspiration to turn this accident into a useful discovery – safety glass.

Transcript -- Edouard Benedictus and Accidental Safety Glass

Can you think like a scientist? Can you turn a bad result into a good hypothesis? Scientific thinking changes the way you look at the world. Science generally involves long hours of painstaking lab work as researchers refine their carefully designed experiments in response to their results. However, occasionally, it all goes wrong and the outcome isn’t quite what was expected. That’s when thinking like a scientist can help turn a bit of bad luck into a new discovery. From the Big Bang, penicillin and radioactivity to Teflon, Velcro and Viagra the history of science is littered with these 'accidental' inventions. This series focuses on three examples which have helped save lives - penicillin, safety glass and pacemakers. Find out how wondering why an experiment went wrong led to something far more interesting.

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Transcript -- Edouard Benedictus and Accidental Safety Glass

Transcript -- Edouard Benedictus and Accidental Safety Glass

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