Outside-of-Box Thinking Day 2025

1. Georges de Mestral invented Velcro because he was walking his dog. The engineer examined a burdock taken from the animal under a microscope and discovered tiny hooks on it.

2. Konstantin Fahlberg forgot to wash his hands after examining bitumen derivatives and discovered that the food he touched became sweet. This is how saccharin was discovered.

3. Oskar Minkowski and Josef von Moehring accidentally discovered the hormone insulin. They removed a dog’s pancreas and the animal developed diabetes. This became clear after flies began to flock to the test subject’s urine.

4. Percy Spencer had forgotten a chocolate bar in his pocket and while working on the magnetron he noticed that the sweetness had melted. And so the engineer invented the microwave oven.

5. An Andean man got lost in the jungle and caught malaria. Thirsty, he decided to drink from a puddle of water that was near a cinchona tree. Quinine got into the water and saved the man.