Remember, you wanted to invent a painkiller. At the end of the study, you see that what you have discovered has no analgesic properties. But the drug can be used to treat fever. This is Serendipity. Discovering something by accident is called serendipity. There are many life-saving drugs that scientists accidentally discover during research. Let's learn about these life-saving drugs.

Penicillin

• In 1926, Alexander Fleming was researching influenza. In 1917, an influenza pandemic claimed the lives of countless people, known as the Spanish flu. The bacterium responsible for influenza is Staphylococcus. In the laboratory of St. Mary's Hospital, Fleming was researching the Staphylococcus bacterium in Petri dish. At the end of the work, he inadvertently left the petri dish by the window.When he returned to work after a month's vacation, Fleming noticed that a mold had formed on the Petri dish of the Staphylococcus bacteria. Staphylococcus bacteria did not grow in the areas where the mold grew. He realized that the mold contained a substance that could inhibit bacterial growth. This mold was Penicillium notatum. He named the flammable bacterial growth inhibitor penicillin.Alexander Fleming won the Nobel Prize in 1945 for his discovery of the groundbreaking antibiotic penicillin.