[PreciousLiberty]

“She arranged them by color and appearance, repeating a pattern. She basically made a sculpture and got lucky it actually made something. She didn’t “discover” anything.”

First of all, the balls representing atoms can only accept as many “bonds” as the real thing - so anything you make with them (with all holes filled) is a valid molecule.

Second of all, a high percentage of discoveries have been by accident. Vulcanized rubber, saccharine, Coke, teflon, plastic, radioactivity, synthetic dye, and penicillin were all accidental discoveries. Sometimes it’s much better to be lucky than good.

So, don’t rain on this girl’s parade, she has something in common with many famous inventors. It’ll be interesting to see how useful this new substance is in practice.

[Timber Rattler]

Yep, and DuPont used to fund "pure research," with the full expectation that accidental discoveries would be made and could be very profitable. It's how Wallace Carothers discovered Nylon.

[Redleg Duke]

Oh, come on! The world is full of jealous wanna-be's and never-were's and the only thing they can do is denigrate the efforts and results of others.

And you call them on it! What about their self-esteem?

/Sarc