ABSTRACT
A popular portrayal of scientists in television series and movies has the
scientist mixing random colored liquids and occasionally striking it lucky,
discovering a potion that makes things invisible-or being unlucky and
causing an explosion that makes their hair stand on end and takes off their
eyebrows. Professional experimental science isn’t like that, of course. (We
hope you agree with that “of course.”) In real life, scientists begin by
formulating a hypothesis and performing an experiment to test it. But
that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some luck involved. In fact, sometimes,
a major discovery depends on an incredible stroke of luck.
