Instruction
What examples of learning by "happy accident" or just by chance have you experienced in your own life?
What do you think it means for a person (especially a scientist) to have a "prepared mind," as Pasteur describes?
How can a person prepare his or her mind to be open to chance within a particular discipline? What roles might education, job experience, and life experience play in creating a prepared mind?
Often researchers must try many things that don't work before they find the hypothesis that really explains what is going on. This expectation of failure probably does not sit well with funding agencies or the public. How could this important part of the scientific method be explained to the public so that it is better accepted?