Unit 4 Discussion Board 2

Serendipity, Error & Exaptation

Primary Response

ThienSi (TS) Le

CS875-1602C-01

Futuring & Innovation

Dr. Imad Al Saeed

 (18-May-2016)

In Unit 4 Discussion Board 2 on the topic of “Planning for Future”, students are required to provide an innovation example for discoveries. This short piece of writing will describe an example on discoveries through serendipity, error or exaptation in this discussion. 

In general, serendipity or exaptation is a work that completely changes accidentally the way that something is done. For example, maternity leave or paternity leave is a leave of absence from a job for a mother or father to care for a new baby. A period of paid absence from work, in the England currently two weeks, to which a parent is legally entitled immediately after the birth of his or her child. Now, some people, who have an innovation idea, want to have maternity/paternity leave even though they have no child. It is called “me-maternity.” Furthermore, people who buy or adopt a pet such as a dog, cat or a snake, they also request a paid leave of absence, called “pet-maternity” to adjust their life with the new member, the pet, in the family. If this concept were honored by companies, then it would be serendipity.    

According to Gaughan (2010), serendipity is some random events or occurrences intended for something that discovers something else accidentally by chance in a satisfactory or beneficial way. A famous English art historian Horace Walpole called serendipity as fortunate happenstance or pleasant surprise (Mowl, 2010) when he unexpectedly discovered something by reference to a Persian fairy tale “The Three Princes of Serendip” who always made discoveries accidents and sagacity. A simple example of serendipity is a discovery of matches by a British pharmacist John Walker (Cyran & Gaylord, 2012).

The error is a mistake such as a state or condition of being wrong in conduct or judgement. An error usually relates to a miscalculation, inaccuracy, or blunder. Most errors are bad but sometimes it leads to a good discovery of innovation. For instance, while a mechanic changes the lubrication oil in an automotive and fills the oil in the coolant radiator, he discovers that the water pump is leaking the coolant fluid inside the engine.   

 Exaptation is a transformation in the function of a trait during evolution (Gould, 1982). A trait can evolve by shifting from one particular function to another function subsequently during time growth, particularly in anatomy and behavior. For example, an exaptation of wolf pups is that they lick the faces of adult wolves to encourage them to regurgitate food. Another classic example of exaptation is bird feathers. Bird feathers are initially for temperature regulation, but later they are adapted to flight. 

Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered Penicillin in 1928.

(Source: Adapted from http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//32/media-32192/large.jpg) 

One of the great serendipity is a scientific innovation story of Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928. Sir Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist who investigated the properties of staphylococci, spherical bacteria in the cultures. He found that one of the cultures was contaminated with fungus, and the colonies of staphylococci immediately surrounding the fungus had been destroyed. Fleming grew the mould in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that killed some disease-causing bacteria. The substance was called penicillin on March 07, 1929. Fleming’s accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin in September 1928 earned him the shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 marked the start of modern antibiotics (Colbrook, 1956).    

In summary, the writing described the concept of serendipity, error, or exaptation as the intended work of the events that accidentally discovers something else with useful or beneficial results. It discussed serendipity and exaptation in details and provided several examples, especially Sir Fleming’s discovery of penicillin substance that recently opened the modern antibiotics.  

REFERENCES

Cyran, P. & Gaylord (2012). The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions. Retrieved May

16, 2016  from

http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2012/1005/The-20-most-fascinating-accidental-inventions/Matches

Colbrook, L. (1956). “Alexander Fleming 1881-1955." Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2: 117–126. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1956.0008

Fleming, A. (1928). Alexander Fleming: biography. Retrieved May 16, 2016 from

http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//32/media-32192/large.jpg

Gaughan, R. (2010). Accidental genius: the world's greatest by-chance discoveries. Metro Books. ISBN 978-1-4351-2557-5.

Gould, J. (1982). Exaptation – a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology 8(1): 3-15.JSTOR 2400563.

Mowl, T. (2010). Horace walpole: the great outsider, Faber, 2010.