Legend says a chef sliced potatoes paper-thin to spite a picky customer, though historians think the tale has been stretched over the years.
As the story goes, an 11-year-old left his soda outside on a freezing night and woke up to the first Popsicle.
A physicist noticed a covered screen glowing during an experiment and discovered rays that could see through the human body.
An engineer watched a spring fall off a shelf and “walk” instead of landing, and a classic toy was born.
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Before it became a beloved toy, Play-Doh was made to clean soot off wallpaper.
This compound was first rejected for being way too sticky, until someone realized that was exactly the point.
An engineer installed the wrong part in a device, and it started pulsing just like a human heartbeat.
A glue that was considered a failure because it was too weak became the perfect sticky note.
An engineer noticed the candy bar in his pocket had melted while he worked near radar equipment, and that gave us the microwave.
A scientist came back from vacation to find mold on a messy lab dish, and it ended up saving millions of lives.