Today we learn that being brilliant doesn't necessarily endow one with common sense. Today we talk about how a wallpaper cleaner became a children's toy, how a man's quest to end world hunger created one of the deadliest bioweapons ever created, and discuss the sad life of a genius who passed up multiple fortunes.
Sources:
https://helix.northwestern.edu/article/thalidomide-tragedy-lessons-drug-safety-and-regulation
https://theconversation.com/remind-me-again-what-is-thalidomide-and-how-did-it-cause-so-much-harm-46847
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/08/hitchens200608
http://listverse.com/2009/07/19/10-useful-inventions-that-went-bad/
https://dictionary.hantrainerpro.com/chinese-english/translation-ci_porcelain.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_B%C3%B6ttger
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/726/johann-friedrich-bttger-german-1682-1719/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-inventive-mind-of-walter-hunt-yankee-mechanical-genius-5331323/
https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/safety-pin-sewing-machine-inventor-walter-hunt/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_wrap
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazen_bull
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph-Ignace_Guillotin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bullock_(inventor)
https://www.nytimes.com/1937/07/04/archives/col-jacob-schick-inventor-59-dies-retired-army-officer-devised-dry.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jordan_Gatling
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fortune
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/invention