Possibly the single most significant chemical discovery of the 20th century was literally poured down the drain

Comments

• thecaptaintrout@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Image

  original

  • kersploosh@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That’s Hermann Staudinger. He won the Nobel Prize for his work on polymers.

    https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1953/staudinger/facts/

    Supposedly, when he first synthesized a polymer he didn’t realize the significance of what he had and poured it down the drain. Though a quick Google search isn’t coming up with any sources for that story aside from the Reddit post OP’s image came from.

    original