post-it notes my home is full of post-it
have you ever wondered how post-it note
was discovered for that matter what
about Teflon by Japan the x-ray tires
viagra velcro microwave they were all
discovered by accident or we call
serendipity the word serendipity was
first coined by horse walpole based on a
prescient tale the three princes of
Serendip in this tale the princess were
making discoveries amazing discoveries
by accident and by sagacity or keen
sense in fact in science we use
serendipity quite often when lucky
breaks
pertaining to breakthrough discoveries
that what happened in 2009 in my
laboratory at work on State University
in 2008 I received a grant from National
Science Foundation to discover some very
exotic materials which can revolutionize
the computer industry
I thought Intel will like it because
he’s in Oregon so for that purpose we
choose four elements in the periodic
table atrium indium manganese and oxygen
there are reasons behind this choosing
those elements but that is out of this
beyond the scope of this talk so then I
asked my graduate student to mix three
chemicals atrium oxide which is white
indium oxide which is yellow and
manganese oxide which is black he mixed
them put them in the furnace we went
home so next today morning I was in the
lab when you open the furnace and remove
the samples
I was shocked they came brilliantly blue
so like any other professor I turned the
he said that’s what you asked me to do
so we repeated it because in my 40 years
of research I’m doing I never really
thought a manganese compote will produce
such a brilliant blue color so we did it
the beat of the experiment and I would
like to find out where the blue come
from imagine a world without colors I’m
sure it is very boring world now see
with colors it’s a beautiful world when
a white light shines on an object the
BBC color part of the color get absorbed
part of the color get reflected what we
see is a reflected color so that depends
on the nature of the chemical compound
on the surface of the material such as
paint although we understand that it is
very difficult to predict the color of
the compound before you make it for
example take example of her ruby and
emerald in both cases the color come
from chromium so chromium is not always
do green or red so I as a scientist I
don’t have any way of predicting the
color before I make the compound in the
lab so where the blue colors come from
so we’d spent a lot of time on studying
the intricate chemistry of this pigment
and we found out the color come from the
manganese in the additional coordination
which has me never seen before
so clearly this compound is very stable
where it is not possible to soluble in
its ensemble in water or acid or alkali
so immediately I thought this compound
should be a very good for a pigment come
applications so we filed a patent and
also we published this work in here in a
very top-tier journal in chemistry the
Journal of American Chemical Society and
their Shepherd color company showed
immediate interest because they make the
color pigment
as soon as we published our results to
my surprise and astonishment all the
news outlets call me and play the cover
our discovery it was covered by CNN BBC
News New York Times even The Washington
Post I was bit worried because somebody
may think it’s a fake news so I was so
happy when Fox News called me and then
when the reporter called me I said are
you sure you want to color cover this
scientific discourse because the blue
discovery from your blue state and also
by a blue chemist cap I like blue she
said even people live in red states like
blue color to my surprise and my
daughter’s excitement it was covered in
cosmopolitan Harper bizarre and teen
walk I still remember vividly my
daughter texted me
dad you finally made it a video in now
in a social media I have seen 15 million
times it is more than Lady Gaga’s video
posted at the same time and the million
reasons I can give you a million reasons
why chemistry is fun why the blue is so
fascinating that is because brew is very
difficult to make living organisms
cannot make blue color
whenever you see vivid color on Morpho
butterfly peacock even blue eyes they
don’t have an atom of pigment the way
that the color comes from because the
way light reflect from their structure
it’s called structural color so blue is
the most difficult color to make in
nature even when you look at the
prehistoric paintings there were no blue
that is because the alien civilization
has no access to blue blue pigment
because blue is not an earthen color so
clearly blue is our most fascinating the
first blue pigment came into existence
was lapis lazuli which was in the 3000
BCE you know they vivid pigment but he
still not very used to the other than
decorative purposes because you’re a
very stable pigment
however Egyptians adored the blue of
lapis lastly is blue and adorned their
tomes and funerary mask with it when
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel
he demanded that he wants to use rapid
lastly because of the vividness so
clearly there are only very few blue
pigments known in the world today one is
the Egyptian blue because Egyptians try
to mimic the lapis lastly because lapis
lastly was very expensive more expensive
than gold so they want to try to do it
but they couldn’t make it
next came the Prussian blue another
accidental discovery in 1700 to 7204 in
germany and the next one is a cobalt
blue which was 1800 – for 200 years
there were no discoveries the first blue
pigment ever discovered in United States
was the Inman blue in addition to pre
blue or blue pigments can reflect heat
that means if you use this paint to
paint your roofs or on the car it’ll
keep the car cooler or the house cooler
actually by saving the energy bills so
it is a discovery and beyond the color
all the artists were so happy to see
this new pigment because they were tired
of painting using only cobalt blue or
Persian blue so I had a lots of
inquiries from all over the world it was
painted from Austria by painters from
Australia the Europe event in Japan they
used our pigments in their creations to
satisfy these needs a company now in
Australia makes this pigment for sale
recently I was in Australia for a
conference I was read a story in Sydney
I could see these tubes are sold it was
so amazing because this is the discovery
you made in Oregon in a small town
called Corvallis it is now sold in I in
Sydney in the stores finally to my
amazements I work with electrons and
protons and neutrons
I never thought crayons will be
interested in my research
Crayola called me and said they will
likely introduce a new blue color based
on our discovery finally after the poll
from Oliver from United States they
decided to name the blue it’s called
beautiful you know the as a scientist I
was so happy to discover the blue but I
want to see what can I do with this
discovery can I go beyond the blue so by
looking at the chemistry carefully by
taking the chemistry by replacing the
manganese with copper we made the
beautiful green pigments that is the
University of Oregon color so they are
very happy and then we put iron for the
manganese we made the beautiful orange
color there is always new color so the
by using some titanium and zinc we made
the purple color so clearly we went
beyond the blue now we are looking for
the red pigment in my lab I always tell
my students you never know what you’re
going to discover maybe we’ll finally
discover the electronic materials we are
looking for but we know exploring this
so I was extremely fortunate and maybe
lucky to make this discovery with my
student but I want to remind this luck
favors only the prepared mind thank you
very much [Applause]