Serendipity Explained

Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery.^[1] The term was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754.

The concept is often associated with scientific and technological breakthroughs, where accidental discoveries led to new insights or inventions. Many significant discoveries in history were serendipitous, including penicillin, Post-it notes, Viagra, and the microwave, arising from unforeseen circumstances that were then recognized and capitalized upon.^{[2] [3] [4]}

While serendipity in popular usage is often understood as a matter of pure chance, scientific discussions emphasize the crucial role of human agency—recognizing, interpreting, and acting upon unexpected opportunities. This interaction between chance and conscious action has been a key theme in areas such as creativity, leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship.^{[5] [6] [7]}

Christian Busch views serendipity as "active luck", where chance encounters and human action come together. A missed flight or a casual walk in the park can lead to new friendships, interests, or even career opportunities.^[8]

Etymology

The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. In a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a lost painting of Bianca Cappello by Giorgio Vasari^[9] by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of."^[10] The name comes from Serendip, an old Persian name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon), hence Sarandib by Arab traders.^[11] It is derived from the Sanskrit Siṃhaladvīpaḥ (Siṃhalaḥ, Sinhalese + dvīpaḥ, island).^[12]

The word has been exported into many other languages, with the general meaning of "unexpected discovery" or "fortunate chance".^{[13] [14]}

Applications

Inventions

The term "serendipity" is often applied to inventions made by chance rather than intent. Andrew Smith, editor of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, has speculated that most everyday products had serendipitous roots, with many early ones related to animals. The origin of cheese, for example, possibly originated in the nomad practice of storing milk in the stomach of a dead camel that was attached to the saddle of a live one, thereby mixing rennet from the stomach with the milk stored within.^[15]

Other examples of serendipity in inventions include:

• The Post-It Note, which emerged after 3M scientist Spencer Silver produced a weak adhesive, and a colleague used it to keep bookmarks in place on a church hymnal.
• Silly Putty, which came from a failed attempt at synthetic rubber.
• The use of sensors to prevent automobile air bags from killing children, which came from a chair developed by the MIT Media Lab for a Penn and Teller magic show.
• The microwave oven. Raytheon scientist Percy Spencer first patented the idea behind it after noticing that emissions from radar equipment had melted the candy in his pocket.^[16]
• The Velcro hook-and-loop fastener. George de Mestral came up with the idea after a bird hunting trip when he viewed cockleburs stuck to his pants under a microscope and saw that each burr was covered with tiny hooks.^[17]
• The Popsicle, whose origins go back to San Francisco where Frank Epperson, age 11, accidentally left a mix of water and soda powder outside to freeze overnight.^[18]
• The polymer teflon, which Roy J. Plunkett observed forming a white mass inside a pressure bottle during an effort to make a new CFCs refrigerant.^[19]
• The antibiotic penicillin, which was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming after returning from a vacation to find that a Petri dish containing staphylococcus culture had been infected by a Penicillium mold, and no bacteria grew near it.^[20]
• The effect on humans of the psychedelic lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1943, after unintentionally ingesting an unknown amount, possibly absorbing it through his skin.^[21]

Discoveries

Notes and References

1. Web site: Serendipity . https://web.archive.org/web/20170711222514/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/serendipity . July 11, 2017 . Oxford Living Dictionaries . Oxford University Press . 23 April 2018.
2. de Rond, M. (2014). ‘The structure of serendipity’. Culture and Organization, 20, 342–58
3. Copeland, S. (2018). Fleming leapt on the unusual like a weasel on a vole': challenging the paradigms of discovery in science". Perspectives on Science 26, pp. 694–721.
4. Book: Vuong . Quan-Hoang . A New Theory of Serendipity: Nature, Emergence and Mechanism . 2022 . Walter de Gruyter . 9788366675582 . en.
5. https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/serendipity-mindset-art-science-creating-good-luck/24530/ "Christian Busch: The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck"
6. Dew, N. (2009). "Serendipity in entrepreneurship". Organization Studies 30, pp. 735–753.
7. Race, T. M. and Makri, S. (2016). Accidental Information Discovery: Cultivating Serendipity in the Digital Age. London: Elsevier.
8. Busch . Christian . 2024-05-01 . Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization . Journal of Management Studies . en . 61 . 3 . 1110–1151 . 10.1111/joms.12890 . 0022-2380.
9. Web site: Silvia Davoli . The creation of the word 'serendipity' . Strawberry Hill House & Garden . 2 July 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180706091429/http://www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/the-creation-of-serendipity/ . 2018-07-06 . live. Strawberry Hill Treasure Hunt.
10. Book: Theodore G. . Remer . Serendipity and the Three Princes, from the Peregrinaggio of 1557 . 6 . Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by Theodore G. Remer. Preface by W. S. Lewis . . 1965.
11. Book: Barber, Robert K. Merton, Elinor . The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science . 2006 . Princeton University Press . Princeton, NJ . 978-0691126302 . 1–3 . Paperback.
12. Web site: serendipity . The Free Dictionary . 2017-06-10 . 2018-10-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181013192621/https://www.thefreedictionary.com/serendipity . live.
13. For example: Portuguese serendipidade or serendipismo; Spanish serendipia; German Serendipität; French sérendipité or also heureux hasard (fortunate chance); Italian serendipità (Italian Dictionary Hoepli by Aldo Gabrielli, cfr.); Dutch serendipiteit; Swedish, Danish and Norwegian serendipitet; Romanian serendipitate; Finnish serendipisyys or serendipiteetti; Russian sieriendipnost (Серендипность); Japanese serendipiti (セレンディピティ); Chinese yìwài fāxiàn (意外发现 that is "unexpected discovery").
    Others use directly the term serendipity, like Polish.
14. Book: Collins Chinese Dictionary . HarperCollins Publishers . New York . 2005 . 90, 391 . 0-00-720432-9.
15. Web site: The Power Of Serendipity . CBS News . 5 October 2007 . en . 2019-02-17 . 2019-08-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190811105037/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-power-of-serendipity/ . live.
16. Web site: The story of serendipity . Understanding Science . University of California Museum of Paleontology . 2019-02-18 . 2018-11-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181108025727/https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/serendipity . live.
17. Web site: This Month in Physics History: February 9, 1990: Death of George de Mestral . February 2004 . American Physical Society . en . 2019-02-18 . 2019-02-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190219015708/https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200402/history.cfm . live.
18. Book: Thomas, J. Thorson . Serendipity: Seemingly Random Events, Insignificant Decisions, and Accidental Discoveries that Altered History . Windy City Publishers . 2017 . 9781941478592 .
19. Plunkett . Roy J . Roy Plunkett . 4 February 1941 . Tetrafluoroethylene polymers . US . 2230654.
20. Web site: Alexander Fleming: Fleming's serendipitous discovery of penicillin changed the course of medicine and earned him a Nobel Prize. . December 5, 2017 . Science History Institute . en . 2020-04-28 . 2020-11-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201110200725/https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/alexander-fleming . live.
21. Book: Hofmann, Albert . LSD, my problem child: reflections on sacred drugs, mysticism, and science . 2009 . 978-0-9798622-2-9 . Fourth English Language . Santa Cruz, CA . 610059315.