Interesting Invention - Aspartame

Artificial sweetner and sugar substitute, aspartame, which can be found in most diet drinks, including big-name brands such as Diet Coke, was discovered by accident in 1965 by James Schlatter, a chemist at the U.S. drugs company GD Searle (now part of Pfizer).

(The legend goes that he was working in his laboratory on a new ulcer drug when he mixed two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. After accidentally spilling the liquid on his hand, he licked his finger and found it was sweet.

Today, a host of websites with names such as aspartamekills.com and sweetpoison.com warn that it is dangerous to health, and Pepsi recently announced it's dropping the sweetener from drinks in the US but not the UK.)