Great ideas sometimes come about through happy coincidence. Just ask Richard Foulds, the manager of Etihad Towers, on the Abu Dhabi Corniche. Like many of us, he was impressed by the spectacular stunt in the blockbuster Furious 7, where a supercar bursts out of one of the skyscrapers and into another. He was especially intrigued by the drone used to film the scene. He guessed, correctly, that a drone camera could help spot tiny air leaks in the buildings’ window seals, saving time and money in repairing them.
This kind of thing is not unique. Technologies created for one purpose often end up being used in entirely different ways. The hair-loss treatment Rogaine was first devised to lower blood pressure, Play-Doh was devised to remove spots from wallpaper, and the texting function on a mobile phone was an afterthought that became more popular than the device’s intended purpose.
As much as we value scientific discovery, it sometimes take serendipity to find an invention’s best use.
