Serendipitous discoveries tend to happen in unexpected ways. But the stories of the serendipitous discoveries of three different artificial sweeteners are, in their basic components, identical.
All three were discovered when a scientist put his hand to his mouth and tasted something unusually sweet.
Saccharin, 1897, Johns Hopkins University
Cyclamate, 1937, University of Illinois
Aspartame, 1965, G.D. Searle & Co