The first artificial sweetener was found because a chemist skipped hand-washing

In 1878, Johns Hopkins researcher Constantin Fahlberg was working with coal-tar derivatives when he noticed his dinner rolls tasted oddly sweet — his hands were coated in a compound from that day's work. He went back to the lab and tasted the chemicals on his own bench, identifying saccharin: about 300 times sweeter than sugar, with no calories, and still used in sweeteners today.

— Constantin Fahlberg, Saccharin — Discovered 1878, Johns Hopkins University