Welcome back everyone! Today, I've pulled out an old article I published years ago, and I've also discovered some movies that we're going to progress-tracking for the next couple of years. Let's get started!
Days till:
It is: 52 days till Labor Day
It is: 67 days till the first day of Autumn
It is: 131 days till The Good Dinosaur's theatrical release!
In the Spotlight:
Well, this week, I don't have much news regarding any of the movies I've been following, but I did my research and found several other movies I'm going to start following so I can track their progress. And I was worried I wouldn't have a movie to follow the progress of after Jurassic World...
The Good Dinosaur (November 17, 2015)
Finding Dory (June 17, 2016)
Ice Age: Collision Course (July 15, 2016)
Toy Story 4 (June 16, 2017)
How To Train Your Dragon 3 (June 29, 2018)
The Incredibles 2 (TBD)
Wow! We've got a lot of really cool movies coming up! The anticipation for Jurassic World might be over, but it looks like we have a lot to look forward to within the next few years to fill Jurassic's shoes. AWESOME!
Topic of the Week by Christian Ryan
Penicillin
is a group of antibiotics that is famous for saving countless millions
of lives. But do you know what and where it comes from? Well, penicillin
is actually derived from Penicillin fungi! Isn't it amazing that
God has created special types of fungi that can help cure people from
serious diseases? Penicillin has been around for a long time, and quite
obviously, it's still widely used today. Penicillin is one of those
handy things that we tend to take for granted these days. Have you ever
questioned who thought of the idea of using penicillin for medical uses?
Well, would you believe me if I told you that it was a . . . (how can I
break the news to you?) . . . MISTAKE! That's right!
The
discovery that penicillin could be used for medical uses was
accidental. How did it happen? It all started when, Alexander Fleming, a
Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist, returned from a
vacation on September of 1928 to check on an experiment he was
conducting before he left. Before going on his vacation, Alexander put a
number of Petri dishes to the side of his work bench so that another
person could use the bench while he was gone. When he returned to check
on his experiment, he found that one of his dishes had been contaminated
by some type of mold, and this mold had apparently killed the germs he
had been growing in the dish for his experiment. This intrigued him
greatly. Alexander then decided to run a few tests on the mold and found
it to be non-toxic, but deadly to harmful bacteria. A light bulb
clicked on in Alexander's head – he had discovered penicillin!
The
accident of the discovery of penicillin has saved millions of people.
But did you know that there are many other handy inventions that were
also created by pure accidents? Read on to find out more about accidents
that changed the world!
The
year was 1943 when a naval mechanical engineer named Richard James was
working on metal springs to support the instruments on the ship during
the rough and stormy seas. All of a sudden, he accidentally bumped a
little spring off the shelf and he watched with glee as it “walked” from
a series of arcs, to a stack of books, on top of a tabletop and down
onto the floor where it stood itself back upright. This gave him an
idea. Yes, you guessed it – the Slinky was born!
He
came home to his wife Betty and spawned the idea to make and sell toy
springs that could “walk” across differently elevated objects, as if
walking down steps. She was skeptical at first, but neighborhood kids
loved the idea, so the pair began to work on this idea. Betty was the
one who gave this new toy its name: Slinky (meaning “sleek and
graceful”).
As
with any new product, the James' had difficulty selling their new toy
to department stores, but Gimbels finally granted them permission to
sell. Gimbels soon learned that they made a wise decision, as 400 units
of Slinkies were sold withing 90 minutes!
Dr. Spencer Silver decided to make a really strong type of glue in 1968, and guess what he accidentally made instead – a weaker glue!
You can bet he was pretty bummed! Spencer decided to try promoting his
invention, but no one bought it. However, it was a good thing that a
colleague of Spencer – Art Fry – likes the idea of a weaker glue. His
idea was to use this glue to anchor his bookmark to his hymnbook and it
worked wonderfully. The glue was strong enough to keep the bookmark in
place, yet weak enough to leave the book page unharmed!
This
nifty invention was a hit with 3M and they launched the product in
stores in 1977. They dubbed the invention, “Press 'n Peel”! Not
surprising with a name like that, the results were very discouraging,
but 3M didn't give up just yet. Next, they issued free samples, and 94%
of the people who tried the samples liked the product. Finally in 1980,
they released their product in stores, this time under a arguably better
name. Meet the “Post-It Notes”!
As
we all know, Post-It's are still in a very high demand today. I know
very well how useful they are – if there's something I need to remember,
all I have to do is write it on a Post-It and “post it” on a wall or on
the door to my room. Thanks for the mistake Dr. Spencer!
Our
last accidental invention happened in 1945 when Percy Spencer, a
self-taught engineer, was working with an active radar set that emitted
microwaves (hint, hint) called a magnetron when he noticed his Mr.
Goodbar was starting to turn into a “mush-bar”. This gave him a
marvelous idea – he sprinkled a few popcorn kernels around the radar set
and they popped! He just couldn't get enough of this effect, so the
next thing he tried was an egg – and the egg was a success (a messy one
at that, because the egg exploded into the face of one of the
experimenters). These microwave-emitting devices were perfect for
cooking food!
After
learning that this invention could have it's upsides, Percy made a high
density electromagnetic field by giving microwave power from his
magnetron into a metal box and placed food in the box and BINGO! The
food's temperature rose and the rest is history – we now have the
microwave oven!
So
as you have just learned, many things we take for granted today were
actually invented by pure chance, pure accidents, pure mistakes! Maybe
mistakes aren't so bad after all; on the contrary, maybe they're really
just a blessing in disguise!
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Disclaimer: Many
(or in some cases all) of the photographs and images above are not
mine. If you own one or more of them and would like them to be removed,
politely let me know via one or both of the email addresses above.
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