Accidentally Amazing (Royal Institution)

What do a melted chocolate bar, a moldy petri dish, and a bowl of spilled noodles have in common? They all led to world-changing scientific breakthroughs!

Science is often seen as a series of careful plans and tidy lab coats, but Accidentally Amazing reveals the messy, surprising, and often hilarious truth: some of our greatest inventions and discoveries happened by mistake. Join Peter Gallivan and the experts at the Royal Institution to explore 30 jaw-dropping stories of "chance favoring the prepared mind." Discover how:

• An engineer trying to build a rocket pump accidentally invented a famous water gun.
• A messy chemist's unwashed hands led to the discovery of artificial sweeteners.
• A park ranger stumbled upon a pine tree thought to be extinct for 2 million years!

Packed with years of scientific curiosity and "Eureka!" moments, this book moves beyond the classroom to show how curiosity and a bit of luck shaped the modern world. You'll never look at a "mistake" the same way again!