Many important discoveries or creations are accidental it is usually while seeking the answer to one question that we come across the answer to another

Essay topics:

Many important discoveries or creations are accidental: it is usually while seeking the answer to one question that we come across the answer to another.

The speaker claims that many important discoveries or creation are serendipities and they come about while seeking answers to other questions. Though statement finds merit in many renowned discoveries and inventions from the past that came into being while they were not sought, it goes too far to in stating the importance of accident especially for modern day discoveries and creations.

Firstly, the statement does seem appropriate considering the accidental nature of many important past discoveries. To start with, the discovery of fire in the stone-age that transformed the Homo Sapein life till eternity was indeed serendipity. It is also fair to say that Newton’s discovery of Gravitational Law had a chance element in the falling of the apple. Similarly, in 1895, Wilhelm Rongten was flirting with a cathode ray tube and observed a glow on the fluorescent screen thereby discovering X-rays in the process that revolutionized healthcare and gave birth to crystallography. Then one can also learn from how microwave was discovered by the melting of chocolate bar when Percy Spencer was working on a radar-related project. History is rife with such discoveries and inventions that were influenced by chance circumstances running the gamut from invention of pacemakers to the discovery of penicillin where the end result was not something the Scientist intended but was still an important discovery or creation.

However, apart from a select few not every such discovery or creation can be considered to be purely accidental. They were rather accidental observations which needed a perspicacious mind to follow through and turn them into important discoveries. To set the record straight, not every layman can discover X-rays from a glowing fluorescent screen, microwave from a melting chocolate bar, laws of gravity from a falling apple and so on.

More importantly, while the speaker bases his/her claim on ‘accidental discoveries’, he/she conveniently ignores the fact that many significant discoveries and creations have been anticipated and achieved through goal-oriented efforts. Right from the creation of electric bulb by Edison in 1880 to the discovery of Nobel Prize winning blue ‘Light-emitting diode (LED) by Japanese researchers Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, all were purposefully sought product of painstaking lab-work. In fact, the list of such discoveries and inventions is longer than serendipities. Such a list would include discoveries of all fundamental particles of an atom, photoelectric effect, DNA structure, etc. on one hand and the inventions of printing press, I.C. engines, computers, smart phones, etc. on the other.

Lastly, the speaker fails to consider the nature of modern research which requires expensive resources and thus need funding by Government agencies or private firms. Any research project starts with a meticulously planned proposal backed by thorough literature review, and must have well-defined expected outcomes in order to attract funding. Moreover, the principal investigator is accountable to the sponsor for the results of the project, thus leaving very little scope for the former to completely rely on ‘accidents’ for relevant outcomes. For example, the multi-billion Euros ‘Large HadronCollidor’ project from the start had promising prospects which was finally fulfilled by the discovery of long sought-after ‘Higgs-Boson’ particle. Similarly, the evolutions of semi-conductor technology, superconductors, optoelectronics, thermo-electric materials, etc are all the inteneded results of well-planned and designed research projects rather than creations by chance. Yet the possibility of an accidental discovery or invention springing out from these projects cannot be completely ruled-out.

In conclusion, while the statement apparently finds support in many historical discoveries or creations which had the element of chance - though they were not entirely accidental, it goes too far in highlighting the importance of ‘accident’ in scientific research. Not only it fails to consider myriad discoveries and inventions where ‘intent’ was the key, it also overlooks the modern research methodology where even ‘trial-and-error’ is not acceptable in pursuing the claimed outcomes let alone the sole dependence on ‘accidents’.

Votes
Average: 9.1 (14 votes)
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Essays by user shoeb_athar :

Comments

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, apparently, but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, look, moreover, similarly, so, still, then, thus, well, while, apart from, for example, in conclusion, in fact, to start with

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.5258426966 128% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.4196629213 56% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 14.8657303371 168% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 11.3162921348 133% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 33.0505617978 67% => OK
Preposition: 95.0 58.6224719101 162% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 12.9106741573 116% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3763.0 2235.4752809 168% => OK
No of words: 640.0 442.535393258 145% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.8796875 5.05705443957 116% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.02973371873 4.55969084622 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.69529949774 2.79657885939 132% => OK
Unique words: 351.0 215.323595506 163% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.5484375 0.4932671777 111% => OK
syllable_count: 1155.6 704.065955056 164% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 6.24550561798 96% => OK
Article: 8.0 4.99550561798 160% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 4.38483146067 205% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 20.2370786517 124% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 23.0359550562 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 70.7625211535 60.3974514979 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 150.52 118.986275619 127% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.6 23.4991977007 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.76 5.21951772744 149% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 10.2758426966 156% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 5.13820224719 78% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.181053452434 0.243740707755 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0566769223301 0.0831039109588 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0792836024217 0.0758088955206 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113462670417 0.150359130593 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0867112363123 0.0667264976115 130% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 19.1 14.1392134831 135% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 29.18 48.8420337079 60% => Flesch_reading_ease is low.
smog_index: 13.0 7.92365168539 164% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.4 12.1743820225 126% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 17.12 12.1639044944 141% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.76 8.38706741573 116% => OK
difficult_words: 198.0 100.480337079 197% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 11.8971910112 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.2143820225 107% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.