Image Credit: Princeton University What started as a happy accident and an odd measurement could lead to a new, cost-effective way of measuring fluid flow. Often the course of science doesn’t run smooth and happy accidents can lead to major findings and discoveries. From Michelson and Morley’s failure to detect the ether — a mysterious substance through which light was thought to propagate — arose Einstein’s theory of special relativity, for example. That’s a lesson that researchers at Princeton University also recently learned. When they set about to test a high-resolution temperature sensor in water, Marcus Hultmark and three Ph.D. students discovered something remarkable. The sensor initially appeared to be displaying some weird ‘back to front’ readings.