The law of Unforeseen Consequences

A doctor in Merthyr Tydfil was running a small scale clinical trial for a large drug company into a drug that was aimed at helping patients with angina (a heart condition). Compound UK-92480 had little efficacy in this area, and he told them so. “By the way,” he mentioned, “I did notice an odd side effect…” And thus born a drug that over 30m men have taken, and is now mentioned in 15% of all spam! It is ironic to note that its impact on the heart is altogether different that that which was intended!

There are many stories of breakthroughs that occurred by accident. There are many events that give rise to unforeseen consequences, some good, some not so good. It is enough to make you wonder if God has a sense of humour.

We often curse when things don’t work out, but I wonder how often new stop and say “Thanks!” to the Big G when we get an unexpected or even undeserved leg-up. I have to say, I try to always make a point of offering a cosmic thank-you.

On this beautiful sunny, perfect English May day, I wish you a little luck…

“Luck affects everything; let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish” Ovid

Tags: Fate, gratitude, thank you, unforeseen consequences

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 12:11 and is filed under Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.