Summer vacation is almost here, and it’s time to start planning some much-needed R&R. It’s no secret that vacations can do wonders for your mental and physical health – they’ve been scientifically proven to boost happiness, reduce burnout, and even lower your risk of heart attack. But if you’re looking for one more reason to be excited about vacation why not add scientific discovery to the list! While not quite a large enough sample size to prove statistically significance here are five incredible scientific discoveries that were made on vacation.
First on our list is the revolutionary technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which allows scientists to amplify a small amount of DNA into billions of copies. This technique was invented during a weekend cabin trip in 1983 by Kary Mullis. While driving towards California’s famous redwoods, Mullis suddenly had a Eureka moment and came up with the idea of using two primers to bind to a target DNA sequence and polymerase to replicate it in a repeating cycle of heating and cooling. He was so excited by the idea that when he arrived at the cabin he spent the rest of the night drawing “little diagrams on every horizontal surface that would take pen, pencil, or crayon.” He then spent the next several years testing and developing the method in the lab! However, the final result, PCR, won him the noble prize and has become one of the most indispensable tool in molecular biology. Read a more detailed retelling of the full PCR story here.
Next up is the German theoretical chemist Friedrich August Kekule, who discovered the structure of benzene in 1865. Kekule had been puzzled by the structure of benzene for several years until one hot summers day in London. While riding on a horse-drawn double-decker bus through the city he had a daydream of a snake eating its own tail. This led him to the realization that benzene had a cyclic structure, with each carbon atom bonded to two others and each hydrogen atom bonded to one carbon atom. And just like that, Kekule had solved the puzzle that had baffled scientists for years. Another point for traveling and the ability of physical movement to power discovery.
Turns out the beach is also a great place for relaxing and discovering. Dr. Istvan Szabo and his family were enjoying some R&R on a beach in Greece when his daughter picked up a plastic straw to show how polluted the beach was and asked if there were any germs living on it. As a microbiologist, Dr. Szabo had the tools to answer her question. He collected several plastic samples from the beach and examined them in his lab, where he found a completely new microbe living on one of the plastic pieces. The discovery was published in the Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Here’s another case where kids plus sand equals fun and discovery. Ten-year-old Noah Cordie was boogie boarding on Long Beach Island in New Jersey when he felt something sharp. When he reached underwater to investigate, he found a long pointed object about the size of his palm. He contacted the New Jersey State Museum, who identified it as a 10,000-year-old Clovis point. This point is one of the first to be discovered in New Jersey and is now part of a collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Last but not least, we have the famous naturalist Charles Darwin. At the age of 22, Darwin was offered the job of a lifetime: to be the official naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle as it voyaged around the world for five years. During this time, Darwin observed much of the diversity that later helped him formulate his theory of evolution by natural selection. But he was working you might say. Yes and I would argue that the line between scientific work and adventure travel was sufficiently blurry for most 19th centaury naturalists. Read this famous quote from the Origin of Species (below) and consider if it sounds like something you’d post from a typical day at the office or from your vacation. This is staying on the list.
It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
Charles Darwin
Honorary Mention: While not on vacation one of the biggest medical breakthroughs in history came about thanks to vacation. Sir Alexander Fleming had been studying the Staphylococcus bacteria before he left for a two-week break. Upon returning to his lab, he observed that a mold had grown on several Staphylococcus culture plates, and that the mold was inhibiting the growth of the bacteria. Fascinated by this observation, he began to study the mold and discovered that it produced a chemical that could kill the bacteria. This discovery led to the development of penicillin, and the rest is history.
Whether it’s on the beach or in the mountains or sight-seeing in the city, you never know what ideas may come to mind when you step outside of your everyday environment. So go ahead, pack your bags, plan your summer getaway, and let these stories inspire you to take a break from your routine and, perhaps, stumble upon a discovery of your own!
The Official Blog of Edvotek® 