Innovation and Discovery

 

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat.” Innovations come in many forms, some are serendipitous (discovered by mistake), some are discovered in error (a mistake that leads to new discoveries and innovation), and others are invented by exaptation (repurposed from a previous invention to something new). In this post, I will cover an example of each of these types of innovations.

Dawn dishwashing detergent was originally discovered for two purposed:  to cut grease on dirty dishes and be gentle on hands. Now it is used all over the world after oil spills to help clean birds, turtles, and other marine life (Shogren, 2010). In Venice, LA at a warehouse turned into a bird bath house, they use Dawn to bathe pelicans that have been saturated in crude oil; it takes an hour per pelican to remove all the crude oil from the birds. This is an example of a serendipitous innovation that was invented for one purpose but found a separate use for good.

Safety glass is an example of an innovation made in error. French chemist Edouard Benedictus accidently knocked over a glass beaker from a high shelf in his laboratory that was filled with cellulose nitrate (Jones, 2016). When the beaker did not break, Edouard noticed that a film was left inside the glass, created by the chemical. He realized the usefulness of this discovery and filed a patent for it in 1909. Safety glass has been in production in many different forms ever since.

Finally, during the COVID pandemic the world saw a rise in exaptation (Liu, 2021). During this time, demand for specialized hospital equipment soared. As a result many businesses repurposed their design and manufacturing equipment to create new products. Because of the very specific needs created during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a dire need for repurposing equipment and materials such as ventilators and other medical equipment. The need for this life saving equipment accelerated exaptation in innovation. If we could harness this adaptation during normal times, product development lead times could be reduced and used to further support recovery from this crisis (Liu, 2021).

 

References

Jones, P. A. (2016, September 2). 9 things invented by accident. Mental Floss. Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85286/8-things-invented-accident.

Liu, W., Beltagui, A., & Ye, S. (2021, March 2). Accelerated innovation through repurposing: Exaptation of design and manufacturing in response to Covid‐19. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/radm.12460.

Shogren, E. (2010, June 22). Why dawn is the bird cleaner of choice in oil spills. CPR News. Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127999735.