Materials science
The study of disasters in the 19th and 20th century led to some important discoveries. A.A. Griffith (1893–1963) discovered that real materials never get near their theoretical strength. This was a groundbreaking discovery which led to changes in many industries. As an example, steel gets almost 1/10th of its theoretical strength, but most solids are 100 to 1000 times weaker than expected.