During one such run, everything seemed to go well - but the harness had failed to record any data. Murphy was called in, and discovered that every single strain gauge had been wired up incorrectly. Murphy wanted his rueful observation to be seen as a useful design principle. Murphy wasn't very happy about how the media had twisted the meaning of his very sensible design principle - but there wasn't much he could do. Ever since, Murphy's Law has been blamed for a host of everyday annoyances, from why our queue in the supermarket is so often the slowest-moving, to why it usually rains when we decide to leave our umbrella at home.
Most scientists regard it as silly nonsense.
But one who doesn't is Robert Matthews. Since the mid-1990s, he has discovered that many cases of Murphy's Law really can be explained by serious scientific principles. But according to Robert, there are many other examples of Murphy's Law at work in the universe.