“Despite the Herculean effort and enormous expense, only a few drugs for the treatment of cancer were found through NCI’s centrally directed, targeted program. Over a twenty-year period of screening more than 144,000 plant extracts, representing about 15,000 species, not a single plant-based anticancer drug reached approved status. This failure stands in stark contrast to the discovery in the late 1950s of a major group of plant-derived cancer drugs, the Vinca Alcaloids -a discovery that came about by chance, not through directed research.” — Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs.
CRISPR-9 was discovered by accident while trying to understand how bacteria fight the flu. (CRISPR-9 is the acronym for gene editing brouhaha).
Penicillin was discovered via Alexander Fleming’s random mold observation.
Roentgen discovered X-ray tech by accident when he shot electric current through a special gass in a glass tube. Roentgen found out that he’d made a ray that passed through light elements, but interacted with heavy ones; the X-ray.
Vaccines were accidental too. (Edward Jenner — cowpox)
Directed effort seems to be a not-good bet in biotech.
Lesson: Let scientists advanced things in accordance with the invisible hand of scientific discovery and observation as opposed to subsidizing bridges to nowhere. Think more Ioannidis than Kurzweil.*