The history of science is filled with legendary "happy accidents", from penicillin to the microwave oven. These breakthroughs are often attributed to luck. But Prof. Keisuke Goda (University of Tokyo) and his team argues in a recent paper in Progress In Electromagnetics Research (Vol. 184, 14--23, 2025: doi:10.2528/PIER25100702) [1], entitled "Serendipity Engineering with Photonics: Harnessing the Unexpected in Biology and Medicine," that such accidental discoveries can be systematically cultivated. It introduces ``serendipity engineering" --- the intentional design of tools and research cultures to make unexpected, yet meaningful findings more likely.
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