40 Incredible Inventions That Were Born Out of Chance

It doesn’t seem so crazy when someone accidentally creates a new toy or snack food; those things seem simple and safe. What is really crazy is when someone develops a medication and realizes it can be used for something else. This is what happened with the hair loss treatment Rogaine.

It turns out it was initially developed to combat mouth ulcers, which it didn’t do well. However, during their testing, they noticed that it seemed to be helping men regrow their hair, so the company switched gears and marketed it for that instead. It’s sort of wild to think that medicines can have so many unexpected interactions and side effects that you might end up selling them for something other than what you developed them for.