Today is the 128th anniversary of
the discovery of saccharin, the world's oldest artificial sweetener, thanks to inadequate hand washing. On February 27, 1879, researchers at Johns Hopkins University accidentally discovered the non-nutritive sweetener while studying the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide, a coal tar derivative. After a long day in the laboratory, Ira Remsen and Constantin Fahlberg returned to their homes for dinner. Remsen, a chemistry professor and former physician, noticed that his dinner rolls tasted unusually sweet and then bitter. When his wife argued that there was nothing odd about their evening meal, Remsen tasted his hands and concluded that the strange flavor was a residual laboratory chemical. Constantine Fahlberg, a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins, also noticed that his meal was unusually sweet, and reached the same conclusion after tasting his hands and arms. The next day, Remsen and Fahlberg returned to the laboratory and "taste tested" their unwashed equipment to confirm the source of the sweetness.
If you're interested, there's
more to the story on CR4.