Title:  Serendipity (Accidental Discoveries in Science)

Author: Royston M. Roberts

Publisher:  John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Paperback, 1989.   

Level of Difficulty: General Public

Intended Audience: Science Teachers

Reviewed by: Kevin Longo, Undergraduate

Review:

You have all seen the "glare".  It seems as though no matter how much work you put into a presentation, there are always people whose attention begins to wander.  As much as you remind yourself that the students are ultimately responsible for the lecture material, you wish there were some novel way to capture their attention.  The situation is especially critical when you decide to start the next chapter with fifteen minutes left in class.

This is precisely where the book Serendipity becomes helpful.  Subtitled “Accidental Discoveries in Science,” this small book contains 36 chapters, of which 26 are specifically about chemistry (23 about organic chemistry).  In it you can find the story of the sulfa drugs (which were discovered during an investigation into dyes); the Indian legend of the discovery of quinine; Louis Pasteur’s painstaking resolution of racemic acid salts; Herbert C. Brown’s graduation present (a book about boron); and Friedel and Crafts’ attempt to prepare amyl iodide in 1877.

This book contains the facts that make a tedious semester of chemistry more interesting, especially to students who are not otherwise planning a career in science.  The people who discovered the chemistry in this book are shown to be just as human and just as mistake-prone as any of the most timid students in your classes.  You might actually inspire a student to become a chemist if you know these stories well enough.

I would recommend this book to a beginning student of science, with only one reservation:  A freshman armed with this knowledge might start studying the waste containers, looking for a reason why they get warm every time acids and bases are placed in the wrong bottles.  There is a distinction between finding unexpected results while following established (or at least reasoned) procedures, and creating unexpected consequences due to flagrant disregard for common sense. Professor Roberts discusses the successes which happened when the “Edisonian” technique (of testing every bottle on the shelf) was used, but omits the countless accidents and deaths which have resulted from reckless chemistry.

The chemistry theme is occasionally interrupted pleasantly by stories from archaeology, astronomy, micro-biology, and nuclear science, but the background of the author is made evident through his emphasis on  organic chemistry.  Roberts distin-guishes “pseudoserendipity” from serendipity, noting that the former occurs when a “hoped for” result takes place for an unexpected reason (such as when Charles Goodyear accidentally achieved a strengthening of natural rubber).  But to students worrying about the material you are presenting, this distinction won’t make a difference.

This book was written just before the time when contributions from women would be given special attention by publishers.  Little effort is made to identify serendipitous discoveries by women.  But mention is made of the most famous women, such as Rosalind Franklin, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Marie Curie, Lise Meitner, and Mary Leakey.

Because of the number of facts in these stories, I would suggest that you read the book once all the way through; then read the table of contents again to see if you can say at least one interesting thing about each chapter.  A few months later, pick up the book again and read it through.  I guarantee that by that time your chemistry students will consider you a much more interesting teacher.