A concept that is also a way of seeing the world
Serendipity is a word invented by Horace Walpole and derives from the ancient name of Sri Lanka: Serendip.
Of course it describes something that has always existed, although before there was no specific word to describe serendipity.
What does this term describe? Basically the fact of finding something, making a discovery, obtaining an unexpected result, when looking for something else.
It often happens in the scientific field to make unexpected and fortuitous discoveries during experiments that concern something else, therefore it is a concept very intertwined with research and scientific experiments.
This fact is obviously not accidental, in fact an experiment can easily give different results from those expected and therefore it is an area in which serendipity plays an important role, especially if the scientist has an open mind and ready to grasp the unexpected presents in front.
Serendipity should not be confused with luck.
We talk about luck sought, for example, if we play the lottery and actually win a significant sum.
We talk about luck not sought, for example, if we DO NOT play the lottery, we find a coupon on the ground and it is then a winner.
We talk about serendipity if we go to the woods to look for mushrooms and find an ancient coin of great value.
Implicit in the concept of serendipity is the fact of being an active part of the phenomenon, of being actively looking for something.
A concept not far from "Who sleeps doesn't catch fish", even if something else is caught instead of fish.
Perhaps the most famous and striking case of serendipity is certainly the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, who was trying to get to China.
Other famous cases are moplen, cellophane, dynamite, pennicillin, etc. etc.
The messages, I believe, that we can draw from the myriad of examples of serendipity that we can find in the scientific field are two:
1. Try, search, experiment, maybe you won't find what you are looking for, but you could find something else, maybe better and more useful than what you were looking for
2. Always keep the mind open, do not have preconceptions, otherwise something important may pass under your nose and you may not even notice that it is there, in front of your eyes.
Examples of scientific serendipity:
