Medical breakthroughs are happening all the time, and amazing scientists are working to eliminate diseases forever.
While many will know what they’re doing in order to carry out their work, there have been many important medical discoveries that happened completely by accident.
This may either be from when researchers were trying to discover something else, or it might have been entirely accidental and by chance.
This infographic explores some of the most amazing medical discoveries made by accident, who discovered them and when.
For example, did you know that Quinine, which is still used to treat Malaria today, was originally discovered in the 1600s by an unknown man who had a fever when he drank from a pool of water under a quina-quina tree which cured him?
Or that Warfarin was first discovered when a farmer found that his cattle were haemorrhaging due to an anticoagulant in the hay, which is used today as a blood thinner?
Take a look at the infographic below to find out more about these accidental medical discoveries.