One of the funnier parts of the scientific method, at least during work in the field, is that nature is a cruel prankster.  The smallest things can derail the greatest of experiments. More often than not this results in catastrophe, yet some of the greatest leaps in Science have come from something that seemingly went wrong. Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin when he noticed that a bacterial culture had been contaminated with mold, but the bacteria did not spread anywhere near the mold. Penzias and Wilson discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation when they were trying to detect faint radio waves...