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All great medical discoveries can be assumed to be the result of deliberate action on the part of scientists.
But you will be wrong. Many great discoveries are the result of accidents, mistakes and chance.
Here are five of the best, starting with the most recent.
1. Oxford vaccine dose
Had the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine been given at the specified dose, the vaccine’s effectiveness in stopping COVID-19 would have been slightly disappointing at 62%. (And I say “slightly disappointing” with caution because it’s a good result, but next to the 95% effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna, it doesn’t look that bright.)
In Brazil and South Africa, the Oxford vaccine was given at the correct initial dose and the second dose a month later.
But in the UK, trial participants were mistakenly given a half dose in the first round and a full dose later.
And, by coincidence, this resulted in an efficiency of 90%.
Not only that, but the “wrong” dosage also resulted in milder side effects.
2. Penicillin
Perhaps the most famous fortuitous discovery in medicine is the accidental discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928.
Fleming was cultivating the Staphylococcus bacteria and upon returning from vacation he noticed that one of the culture plates had no bacterial growth around a fungal colony that he had started to develop.
Fleming cultivated this fungus, penicillin, which is available everywhere.
And it was first used by one of his former students to treat a bacterial infection in 1930.
It was more than ten years later that penicillin began to be produced in massive amounts to test its clinical efficacy in patients, following pioneering research from the University of Oxford.
3. Culture of bacteria
Robert Koch’s discovery and study of bacteriology represented a significant scientific advance.
Before his work, bacteria were notoriously difficult to isolate from one another and were often grown in a nutritious broth that supports many species.
In 1872, Koch noticed the growth of different colonies on a potato slice and this would be the catalyst for the use of agar, which is now the standard substance used to grow bacteria in a petri dish.
This discovery would allow scientists to isolate the bacteria that made a patient sick.
Koch’s work led him to discover the first bacteria to cause disease named: Bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax.
4. X-rays
The application of X-rays revolutionized medicine at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
Wilhelm Rntgen became aware of these new rays, which he called “X” because of their unknown origin, while studying cathode rays (electrode currents in vacuum tubes).
He noticed that the x-rays could penetrate the cardboard and quickly used them to show that they were entering human tissue as well, using his wife’s hand to demonstrate this.
The application of these rays to look inside the human body has spread rapidly.
But we hardly understood the damage they were doing.
Many cases of typical symptoms of radiation sickness and exposure have been documented, including those of famous scientists such as Thomas Edison.
5.stomach ulcers
It is estimated that more than 4 billion people are infected with H. pylori, a bacteria that lives in the stomach and can cause ulcers.
It was the tireless efforts of two researchers, Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren, and a longer-than-usual growth period that led to the discovery of the bacteria.
Before that, stress and certain foods have been thought of they caused stomach ulcers.
While these factors can make ulcers worse, they do not cause them.
In 1982, Marshall and Warren were studying the lining and stomach contents of various patients with various gastric symptoms.
By chance, it was Easter weekend and that meant the patients’ cultures were being kept in the lab longer than usual.
This resulted in the identification of a new, slow growing bacteria that was causing these symptoms.
Unfortunately, the reluctance of the scientific community to accept the researchers’ findings led Marshall to become infected with H. pylori by consuming a live culture of bacteria, becoming symptomatic, and then treating himself with antibiotics.
Adam Taylor is Professor and Director of the Learning Center for Clinical Anatomy at Lacnaster University.
This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read the original version here.
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