MAKING DISCOVERIES

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1778, 3 July 1926, Page 7

MAKING DISCOVERIES

'SOME INTERESTING “ACCIDENTS.”

'Not the least curious thing about many scientific discoveries is the unlikely place in which the key to a problem may be found, and the unexpected direction in which the discovery may be confirmed or developed. This has recently been illustrated remarkably in the case of a Russian scientist, Dr Manoilov, and others, who claim to have discovered a. reaction by which it is possible to distinguish between the blood of a male and the blood of its female. Dr. Manoilov finds confirmation of his original discovery in a male and female nettle plant! iln the case of Mendel’s discoveries in heredity through .his experiments on edible peas, we find the most thorough confirmation of his work in the feather colour of fowls, and the results are utilised to increase egg-production —which is in no way governed by feather colour. For the further developments "of Mendel’s important work, It is found that the mo!st suitable medium is neither plant nor bird, 'but a minute insect fruit fly. The instance in “wireless” is better known, but not less remarkable. When the problem arose of trapping the oscillating current received at a station, and allowing it to run one way only, it was solved by some mineral crystals normally quite unconnected with electricity or magnetism. Later, of course, „it was found that speciallyconstructed lamps would also serve.

■But perhaps the most fascinating of all the instances of the scientific relationship of unusual things occurs in the case of dyes, says G. C. Heseltine in the Daily Chronicle. A young scientist, W. H. Perkin, was trying to prepare on artificial quinine, when he discovered “mauve,” the first of the analine dyes.

Following on this discovery we find that Turkey red, previously only obtainable from a root, the scarlet for soldiers’ coats hitherto obtained from the Mexican- cochineal bug, Tyrian purple, formerly only produced from a sea-snail, and musk perfume from the deer, are all obtainable from the same source in which the scientist was seeking quinine, namely, coal-tar products.

And closely allied to these colours and perfumes, formerly of animal and vegetable origin, were found drugs such as aspirin and veronal. So in science does one thing lead to or emerge from another in the most unexpected way, a.nd the things thus finding scientific relationship may be 'the most unlikely in the world even to the scientist himself.