Do you value chance discoveries? Like Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin in 1928, for which he got Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine in 1945? I think the man got plain lucky. With due credit, it is one of the greatest discoveries of all time, and it was definitely because of a certain deductive logic on his part. But you see, it is just partly. For most part, it was an accident. You start your research with some objective in mind, say X, and in the process end up finding Y which turns out to be a compound that revolutionizes research…very well done. That means it is a great discovery…that does not necessarily follow that the discoverer is great. It is important to understand that difference. And that’s why I think it’s important to weigh the enormity of a discovery by how judiciously and methodically it was pursued. Otherwise the whole exercise becomes synonymous to a lottery.
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In the field of scientific research luck favours the prepared mind -Louis Pasteur.
You surely know that!
My Grandma told me of an instance like that when I was a kid. Yeah, I faintly remember hearing something of that sort...
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