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Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. The word derives from an old Persian fairy tale and was coined by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754 in a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann (not the same man as the famed American educator), an Englishman then living in Florence. The letter read,Ever since I read that poem (Tewkesbury Road by John Masefield) in elementary school, I have reflected on the pleasant smell that often accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. Only recently did I find out, serendipitously, that two Australian scientists, I.J. Bear and R.G. Thomas had studied the very same phenomenon and coined the word "petrichor" to name that aroma. -- Ramnath Subramanian in "Words offer many bridges to learning;" El Paso Times, June 16, 2005. While some scientists and inventors are reluctant about reporting accidental discoveries, others openly admit its...This information was automatically generated from Freebase article Serendipity. You should replace/update it...