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Open Forum 2 www.oup.com/elt/openforum Oxford University Press 2006

Open Forum 2Web Site Transcript

Chapter 8

A = Andrea, tutor

B = Jerry, student

A: Good evening, Jerry.

B: Andrea, hello. Im sorry Im a bit late.

A: Thats not a problem, but I think we ought to getstarted right away. You have a big exam coming up.

B: Youre right . . . and I havent been able to study forit very much. Ive been busy writing a paper for myscience class.

A: Oh really? Whats the paper on?

B: Its on the discovery of penicillin. Are you familiarwith the story of how penicillin was discovered? Its

actually very interesting.

A: Hmm . . . no, I dont know very much aboutpenicillin . . . other than the fact that its a drugthat has saved millions of lives in the past 70 years.Whats so interesting about its discovery?

B: Well, it was an accident! Alexander Fleming wasnteven looking for an antibiotic when he noticed thatthis mouldwhat we now call penicillinseemedto slow down the growth of bacteria. Imagine, adiscovery that important happening by accident! Itis still one of the most widely used antibiotics in theworld.

A: Hmm.

B: It got me thinking about all sorts of inventions . . .how many of them were the results of accidents? Notonly inventions, but discoveries and ideas . . . howoften are they the result of some unexpected event oraccident? The story of Sir Isaac Newton and the applecome to mind. They say he was just sitting under atree enjoying a fine day when an apple dropped onhis head. And thats when he developed the theory ofgravity.

A: Actually, Im not sure if thats a true story, but I get

your point.B: Well, how about more recently . . . take the example

of Charles Goodyearthe automobile tire companyis named after him. He was working with rubberin the 1800she was trying to find a way to shapedissolved rubber under heat, but it always melted.And then he discovered the process of vulcanizationby accident.

A: The process of what?

B: Vulcanizationthe process by which rubber ismade strong and resilient through the addition ofsulfur under heat and pressure. The rubber losesits stickiness, making it the perfect material forautomobile tires and many other products.

A: How did he make this discovery?

B: Let me see if I remember exactly . . . He had amailbag that was lined with the dissolving rubberand some other materialI cant remember exactlywhat. Somehow, the bag fell onto a hot stove, andthis time the rubber didnt melt . . . it charred, whichwas a great improvement. It turns out that there wassulfur in the other material on the mail bag, and so

when the rubber was heated along with the sulfur, itwas vulcanized.

A: Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell waslooking for a way to help deaf people when heaccidentally invented the telephone?

B: Wow! No, I didnt know that. You know, I wonderif that kind of thing still happens . . . I mean majordiscoveries by chance. So many of the advances inscience today happen in major laboratories run bycorporations or governments or universities. Itshard to imagine helpful accidents in places like thatwhere everything is so organized and well-planned.

A: It definitely still occurs. Think about the example ofmonoxidil.

B: The hair loss drug? My father uses that. It wasdiscovered by accident?

A: It sure was. It was originally created as a medicineto treat high blood pressure. One, or maybe morethan one of the patients using it, reported thathe experienced hair re-growth. Then many otherpatients reported that they started to grow new hair. . . and soon the manufacturer began to market it asa hair loss drug.

B: Thats a great story.A: Well, we could trade stories like this for hours . . . but

I think we need to start preparing for this exam . . .