Accidental, game-changing nanoparticle discovery

Penicillin, teflon, plastic, and now nanoparticles; all breakthrough discoveries stemming from scientific “failures.” University of Central Florida graduate student Soroush Shabahang was trying to create better fiber-optic cables, and he failed. Instead Shabahang discovered a means to cheaply mass-produce complex and sophisticated nanoparticles.” The possible applications are up to your imagination,” said Craig Arnold, an associate professor of Engineering at Princeton University who did not work on the project. The process, known as thermal drawing, creates nanoparticles by heating and cooling multi-material fibers while slowly stretching those fibers apart. As the fibers stretch and cool, the nanoparticles form like droplets, falling from the fibers. The discovery is already being hailed by some scientists as a game changer for pharmaceutical production in delivery; the greatest accident since penicillin.