Discoveries: Serendipity, Error, and Exaptation

 

An example of an innovation from serendipity is Super Glue.  In 1942, Harry Coover was working on developing clear gun sights for guns, however the strong adhesion of cyanoacrylate didn’t allow the work to be completed (Kamprath & Henike, 2019).  The idea of cyanoacrylate (Super Glue) usefulness, ‘sanctum serendipity’, “accidentally discovering something by being in the right place” occurred when Harry Coover was working on a heat resistant polymer for jet airplane canopies (Kamprath & Henike, 2019, p. 348).

Kamprath & Henike (2019) state that serendipity discoveries can be classified in seven patterns, one of which has already been described, sanctum serendipity.  The seven patterns of serendipitous discoveries consist of:

a.      Sanctum serendipity – accidentally discovering something by being in the right place,

b.     Detour serendipity – discovering something by being accidentally at the right place – discovery of the ‘New World’,

 

c.      Momentum serendipity – accidentally observing something because of the right timing – discovery of moons around Jupiter,

 

d.     Combinational serendipity – discovering something by accidentally combining the right materials – vulcanization of rubber and discovery of X-rays,

 

e.      Data serendipity – accidentally discovering an effect through unknown links and emerging patterns in a data set – discovery of Viagra,

 

f.      Communal serendipity – accidentally discovery something by combining the right people – discovery of vitamin C,

 

g.     Aftermath serendipity – accidentally discovering something after a first discovery occurred – discovery of spontaneous radioactivity (Kamprath & Henike, 2019, p. 348).

The toy slinky is an example of innovation from an error.  A naval engineer named Richard James was working at the naval yards in Philadelphia in the 1940’s.  Richard James was trying to develop a way to hold steady delicate instruments on ships during storms at sea (Reif-Acherman, 2015).  He accidentally knocked a torsion spring off his workbench, whereas he observed “the spring ‘walked’ down a series of steps, coiled itself back up, and stopping by standing on its end” (Reif-Acherman, 2015, p. 112).

An example of an innovation from exaptation are birds feathers.  Originally, the appearance of feathers on birds was for the regulation of their body temperature (Garud, Gehman, & Giuliani, 2016).  After a while feathers also provide the additional function of assisting in catching insects.  Further on, culmination occurred of large contoured feathers with their placement on arms, leading to co-opting for flight (Garud et al., 2016).  The use of feathers for flight is exaptation because they occurred when the knowledge of environments for flying was not known.  Garud, Gehman, & Giuliani (2016) postulate that the feathers utility for flight are not an adaptation to the later selection environments, that “preaptation is one source of exaptation” (Garud et al., 2016, p. 5).

 

The term serendipity to me is something whimsical that spontaneously happens.  A personal example of this is me asking my wife to marry me.  We both met online and communicated for eight months before meeting in person.  This was the days before Zoom, Skype, things of that nature.  We did have Yahoo Messenger though!  We lived over 1,000 miles apart.  When I went to meet my future wife in person on the second day during lunch in her favorite Chinese restaurant, I was so overjoyed and happy, that I just burst out “Will you marry me”!  Of course her answer was not exactly yes, it was more of a kind of a yes; she told me to go home and think about it and we will see.  She was being the more rational, level-headed one.  Needless to say, my wife wanted to see if I really meant what I had said or was it just infatuation, physical attraction, or something else on my part.

The term error to me is a mistake, something not correct.  The example for this would be back to my beginning programming days where I would often encounter error codes.  It would be the system telling me, hey dummy, you don’t quite know what you are doing.

When I saw the term exaptation, I had no clue what it meant.  I took another look at the word and thought maybe it something like expatriate dealing with something that is outside the normal bounds.  However, I took another look at the word exaptation and said to myself, nope wrong, don’t pass Go, don’t collect $200.  So, without the help of Dr. C, one of two things would have occurred, either I would have cheated an ‘Googled-It’ or I would be stuck not posting this primary post and hitting my head against the wall!

 

 

References

 

Garud, R., Gehman, J., & Giuliani, A. P. (2016). Technological exaptation: A narrative approach. Industrial and Corporate Change, 25(1), 149-166.

Kamprath, M., & Henike, T. (2019). Beyond planning and experimental-driven exploration. The Routledge Companion to Innovation Management, 343.

Reif-Acherman, S. (2015). Toys as teaching tools in engineering: the case of Slinky®. Ingeniería y competitividad, 17(2), 111-122.