ARMADILLO (WILLIAM BOYD) AND SERENDIPITY

Serendipity. From Serendip, a former name of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. A word coined by Horace Walpole, who had invented it based on a folktale, whose heroes were always making discoveries of things they were not in quest of. Ergo: serendipity, the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident

It´s really funny the origin of the term serendipity. With regards in Science, one of the most well-known serendipity discoveries is, of course, penicillin by Alexander Fleming. But there are more examples, like X-ray or radioactivity. Both were discovered by chance largely. But the action of serendipity can be noticed in other subjects, not only in Science. The famous sentence by Picasso “muses have to find you working” is a kind of adaptation of serendipity to arts.

THE BURGESS BOYS (ELIZABETH STROUT) AND THE ORGANIC METAPHOR

 Pam had already established her own interest in science and she saw society as one large organism working with its million, billion cells heaving itself alive. Criminality was a mutation that interested Pam, and she joined tentatively in these discussions.

 

This is a really nice idea and I think it deserves more credit and appreciation. The term organic metaphor was coined by Herbert Spencer who is considered a forefather of Darwin. Society as one large organism or society as an ecosystem are both pretty images. We can compare many things to a living organism: a novel as a living organism, or a family as a living organism, or a school,…

How lucky was Herbert Spencer, a wise man of Science and Philosophy, with the time he lived! I can imagine him, in the 19th century in England, with some money and prestige enjoying in the Royal Society with his mates.