Epoch Times, Tara MacIsaac, November 25, 2013
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| (Shutterstock*) |
The history
of science teaches us to question what we think we know.
Some
scientists who made great discoveries in history were ridiculed and dismissed
by the scientific community at the time.
Some
scientists who were way off the mark were celebrated; their theories were held
as facts for decades or even centuries.
1. Doctors Should Wash Their Hands
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| Image of doctor washing hands via Shutterstock |
It seems
obvious now, but Ignaz Semmelweis had a tough time convincing scientists and
doctors 150 years ago that disease could be spread if doctors’ hands and tools
were not cleaned.
He was
ridiculed and rejected by the majority of his colleagues and superiors at the
University of Vienna. He moved to Budapest and worked at a hospital there,
slashing mortality rates to a record low by keeping things clean.
Harvard MD
John Long Wilson writes of Semmelweis’s rejection: “His doctrine was opposed by
powerful members of the academic hierarchy. … The damning evidence that they
were themselves the remorseless messengers of death was a scarcely veiled
threat to their pride and eminence.”
2. Cheese
Gives Birth to Mice
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| Image of mouse with cheese via Shutterstock |
It was
widely held until the 17th century that inanimate objects could produce living
beings. The Encyclopedia Britannica gives an example: cheese and bread left in
a dark corner were thought to produce mice—not attract mice, produce mice.
Similarly,
decaying meat was thought to produce maggots.
Francesco
Redi showed in the 17th century that meat does not produce maggots (flies lay
eggs on the meat, producing maggots), by sealing some meat in a jar and leaving
some exposed. The meat in the jar did not form maggots.
3. Tobacco
Will Cure Almost Any Ailment
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| Image of tobacco pipe via Shutterstock |
Children
were told to smoke tobacco in 1665 during the London plague, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. During the 16th century, tobacco was widely
prescribed in Europe as a cure for many illnesses, including cancer.
4. Germs
Kill People
Many
scientists could not accept that tiny little germs could cause diseases and
kill people. Louis Pasteur was initially ridiculed for his theories about
microbes. He proved they could be killed with heat, preventing disease.
He also
showed that microbes are involved in the souring of wine and milk. The term
“pasteurized milk” is named for him.
5. Fritz Zwicky Ridiculed by Colleagues ‘Missing
99 Percent of the Universe’
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| Fritz Zwicky (Wikimedia Commons) |
Fritz
Zwicky developed the theory of dark matter in the 1930s. He was met with great
skepticism and largely ignored for more than 40 years.
His
descendants wrote a letter to Caltech’s journal of Engineering & Science in
2010, describing the reaction of the scientific community to Zwicky’s theory:
“My grandfather identified an extravaganza of precedent-setting observations
that were not understood by many benighted ignoramus of his time.
“Therefore,
he no doubt invoked great animosity by telling his colleagues that they were
missing 99 percent of the universe, and that they were only looking at the dust
bunnies in front of the door.
“No
conductor wants to be told he has lost his caboose.”
6. If
You’re Sick, Just Slit Your Veins
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| (Wikimedia Commons) |
Bloodletting
was immensely popular as a treatment for almost any ailment for centuries. It
was endorsed by some doctors right up through to the 20th century.
Doctors—or
barbers, who also somehow became responsible for performing this
treatment—would cut patients and let blood drain until the patients would
faint.
U.S.
President George Washington died of bloodletting. He was being treated for a
sore throat. He isn’t the only one. Doctors eventually realized the cure was
killing many patients.
MedTech notes
that today, bloodletting may still be effective in very particular
circumstances. For example, it can help some people at risk of blood clots.
7.
Continental Drift
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| Convergent plate boundary created by two continental plates that slide towards each other. |
Alfred
Wegener first hypothesized in a 1912 paper that continents had shifted on the
Earth’s surface over the ages. The theory was met with widespread skepticism
until new evidence emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s.
The theory
was eventually accepted; it was incorporated into, and improved upon, by plate
tectonics.
 |
| Alfred Wegener (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz) |
8. The
Earth Revolves Around the Sun
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| Image of Earth via Shutterstock |
The
Ptolemaic understanding of the solar system held that Earth is at the center
with the sun and planets revolving around it. This view was not simply related
to physics; it placed emphasis on humankind’s spiritual significance in the
cosmos.
In the 16th
Century, Nicolaus Copernicus hypothesized the sun, not the Earth, is the center
of the solar system.
Galileo
Galilei agreed after studying space through his telescope, but he was
condemned, largely because the Catholic Church held this view to be heretical.
9. Mendel’s
Genetics Ahead of His Time
 |
| Gregor Mendel (Wikimedia Commons) |
Now known
as the father of genetics, Gregor Mendel’s theories gained little interest from
the scientists of his time. Mendel’s work with pea plants was only recognized
for its importance after his death.
He observed
the traits passed on to pea plants from their parent plants. He realized he
could calculate mathematical probabilities that certain traits would be passed
on through reproduction.
At the
time, biologists viewed heredity as a process of characteristics from each
parent blending together in the offspring.
10. The
Earth is Not Flat
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| Image of a flat Earth via Shutterstock |
It was long
held in many cultures throughout history that the world is flat, not round.
In ancient
Greece, Pythagoras and Aristotle both theorized that the world is round though
many of their contemporaries thought it to be flat. Biblical accounts of the
“four corners” of the Earth perpetuated the view of the earth as flat.
It is a
myth that educated Europeans in the 15th century believed the world to be flat
as Christopher Columbus embarked on his explorations. By that time, it was
commonly held that the world is spherical.
‘To err is
science’
Douglas
Allchin of the Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science summed it up in a
paper presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in
2000: “To err is science.”
Allchin
noted that learning from mistakes is part of the process, and progress means
leaving old views behind for the new.
Will our
modern theories one day seem silly? Perhaps some scientists ridiculed today
will be redeemed tomorrow.
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