Skip to content
Serendipity episode artwork

Feb 23, 2015 43 min

Serendipity

from The Infinite Monkey Cage Hosted by BBC Radio 4

Serendipity in Science Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by comedian Lee Mack, science author and journalist Simon Singh and chemist Professor Andrea Sella to look at how many of our biggest science discoveries seem to have come about by accident. From Viagra to Pyrex to the discovery of the Cosmic Background Microwave Radiation, the earliest remnant of the big bang, they all owe their discovery to a healthy dose of luck and accident as scientists stumbled across them in the course of looking for something else. So are these discoveries just luck, are they still deserving of Nobel prizes and scientific glory, or is serendipity and an open scientific mind key to exploring and understanding our universe?

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

Serendipity

0:00 43:58

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage?

This episode is 43 minutes long.

When was this The Infinite Monkey Cage episode published?

This episode was published on February 23, 2015.

Can I download this The Infinite Monkey Cage episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.