serendipity +

1. Discoveries that are to some degree foreseen, and result from goal directed processing of the alternatives, are sometimes referred to as pseudoserendipitous.
2. A discovery that does not lead to the discovery of things not sought for; on the contrary, the results of research with expected conclusions.

1. A description of accidental discoveries of ways to achieve an end sought for, in contrast to the meaning of (true) serenpidity, which describes accidental discoveries of things not sought for. 2. To discover, invent, or create something in a surprising way.
3. The accidental discovery of a way or ways to achieve an end that was sought for.

Pseudoserendipity with details about its origin.

Someone who makes happy and unexpected discoveries by accident.

1. To come upon or found by accident; fortuitous: "There have been many serendipitous discoveries in science."
2. A reference to, or suggesting serendipity.
3. Good; beneficial; favorable: "It was serendipitous weather for our trip to Italy."

A reference to the faculty, or occurrence, of making fortunate discoveries by accident or a description of an instance of making such a discovery.

1. An aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
2. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries unexpectedly.
3. The accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful.
4. A natural gift for making pleasant, valuable, or useful discoveries without anticipating such results.
5. An apparent aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally.
6. An unexpected and positive result which is obtained after applying a methodology for completely different purposes.
7. Etymology: Serendip, Serendib, former name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka); from Arabic Sarandib plus English -ity; from the possession of the gift by the heroes of the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip who "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".

Serendipity made its first American dictionary appearance in Webster's New International Dictionary in 1909 and has often been linked with "an accidental or chance discovery".

It was in the 1930s when Walter Cannon of Harvard Medical School used the word to refer to the phenomenon of accidental discovery in scientific research. Then in 1946, sociologist Robert K. Merton and the historian Elinor Barber in The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science presented the concept of the "serendipity pattern" in empirical research, "of observing an unanticipated, anomalous, and strategic datum, which becomes the occasion for developing a new theory."

Although corporations; such as, Pfizer and Merck have supposedly subscribed to the serendipity pattern, it is said that demand for sustained progress in research often prevents scientists from having the autonomy to take the sidetracks that on occasion lead to the accidental discovery of new knowledge.