Supposedly, when he first synthesized a polymer he didn't realize the significance of what he had and poured it down the drain. Though a quick Google search isn't coming up with any sources for that story aside from the Reddit post OP's image came from.
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Possibly the single most significant chemical discovery of the 20th century was literally poured down the drain | Spyke
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That's Hermann Staudinger. He won the Nobel Prize for his work on polymers.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1953/staudinger/facts/
Supposedly, when he first synthesized a polymer he didn't realize the significance of what he had and poured it down the drain. Though a quick Google search isn't coming up with any sources for that story aside from the Reddit post OP's image came from.